Egnazol
by Treestar14
Summary: Egnazol is a murderer, a loner, and a crafter. In a time when the government controls all crafters, Egnazol wanders the world, free, searching for vengeance of wrongs from long ago. But when she finds herself caught in a battle between powers Minecraftia has never known, these past wrongs will come back to haunt her…. Rated T for violence, monsters, and Herobrine. Cover by meee
1. Prologue

**Me: So two men walk into a bar, and-**

**Jerry: Er, wrong place to put that, Loz.**

**Me: OH THAT'S RIGHT I WAS PUBLISHING MY STORY. I AM SO SCATTERBRIANED SOMETIMES.**

**Jerry: You're telling me... I _live _inside your head.**

**Me: Well then get out.**

**Jerry: I don't think that's possible. I'm a ghost.**

**Me: Well, I find it acceptable. IN OTHER NEWS, I'm supposed to be introducing you to my story! It's something I've been working on for a while in my spare time, but it's going to be SERIOUSLY long. I'm also going to put a illustrated version on DA, so when that's ready I'll post a link in the authors note.**

**Jerry: Providing she doesn't abandon the entire thing.**

**Me: I've already written 10000 words Jerry, I'm not stupid enough to give up now. So, before we begin, I'd like to say that while I am the character Egnazol, Egnazol is not me. I prefer stalking people over killing them, and I don't have a stomach for gore. That said, I'm insane.**

**Jerry: So good luck trying to cope with this story. *stalks off***

**Me: JERRY! DON'T SULK! IS IT BECAUSE I DIDN'T LET YOU BLOW UP AMERICA? BECAUSE I KNOW I SHOULD'VE LET YOU! I'M SOOOORRRRRYYYYYYY- naw, he'll be back. Anyway, bon apetite!**

Prologue

Deep in the heart of Minecraftia's capitol, a young and rather ignorant student walked down an isle of books in the capitol's library. His tutor had sent him to read about the justice system after a loud argument over whether the government was right to keep the death penalty or not.

The man reached up and brushed the dust of an old volume. these where some of the more popular books, but the library seemed to be determined to cover every book in dust no matter how often it was used. The title of this particular book read; 'Criminals of Minecraftia, Volume E to H.'

the man looked across the shelf to find 'A to D', the first volume, but it was missing. Books went missing quite often here, but they always turned up in the end. He shrugged and took down the heavy book, carrying it over to a small seat where he made himself comfortable and began to read.

_'Eagol, Traitor and spy. Was an important advisor, but was discovered to have leaked information to the enemy, including maps of the city and knowledge of the military's whereabouts...'_

The man skimmed through most of it, until he reached;

_'...Sentenced to death, in alpha 1.5"_

Huh. The student thought. So they sentenced him to death. A little extreme... the next entry was just as boring. The one after that, however, included a picture of a young-ish woman with dark hair and blue eyes. He knew, like any good Minecraftian, who this must be.

"_Egnazol, serial killer and rogue crafter. The only free crafter currently in existence- it is unknown how she managed to escape the crafter's contract thus far, but some believe that the contract refused to bind to her. It has been confirmed that her father was the deceased wealthy crafter of diamond creek, Percival Diamondcraft, and her mother was a visiting tourist from Smith's Valley, whose name and current whereabouts are unknown. Egnazol is a master in battle, and, thanks to her abilities as a crafter, is a master miner and builder. Her creations are littered across the forests outside civilisation, and often inhabited by evil chickens. How she manages to create these special chickens is up for speculation..."_

The student shivered, remembering some hallowing tales of these chickens. They sure sounded scary.

_'...Extremely dangerous, and civilians are warned to avoid her at all costs. Egnazol is still at large, and 100 hundred emeralds are offered for her, dead or alive.' _

Interesting, the student thought, and moved onto the next case.


	2. Chapter 1: Different from the rest

**Me: Well here we are again. It's always I'M SO EXCITED EEEEEEE! I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY!**

**Jerry: *has come back, just like Loz said he would* Maybe because you got… two reviews on the prologue alone?**

**Me: OH YEAH! IS IT SAD I AM SO EXCITED OVER TWO REVEIWS?!**

**Jerry: Yes.**

**Me: ohokay. Anyway, First chapter CABLAM! This should begin to explain things a bit, and introduce you to our main character! I know there isn't TOO much character development in this, but it's only one chapter. You'll know her better after a few more, hopefully.**

**Jerry: …**

**Me: Also, could you please send a review and tell me what you think of Egnazol's character so far? I've over-thought her, and now I have this idea of who she is in my head, so I can't tell how she seems in the writing. -_-**

**Jerry: SU, LADIES AND GENTELMEN, ENJOY THE SHOWWWWW!**

**Me: … That was my line. :I**

* * *

**EDIT: Changed around a few things. Sorry Fredrickson, but it had to happen.  
**

* * *

**BOOK ONE:  
**

**Footprints**

_In the end, everyone is running in circles. Some times you run backwards and forwards, but there are some things you can't avoid forever._

* * *

Chapter One

Different from the rest.

* * *

All sane Minecraftians knew it was a _bad_ idea to go outside at night time. Night was when the aptly named Night-creatures roamed – Night-creatures being the group of monsters that included Zombies, Skeletons, Creepers, Spiders and slimes – and unless you were _looking_ to find a fight to the death, it was unwise to be anywhere near them.

Of course, Egnazol wasn't what a civilized Minecraftian would call sane. They'd probably diagnose her with some psychotic depression, if given half a chance- and given a whole one, they would kill her on sight. Egnazol didn't care, though, because anyone who lived in civilization had to be more than a little dumb themselves in her opinion.

Why did people want to kill her? The answer was as simple as punching wood- Egnazol was a murderer. She had killed people in cold blood, and she had enjoyed every moment of it. She was probably one of the most dangerous Minecraftians that ever lived, and boy did the know it.

Tales had spread wide and far across Minecraftia, telling of a murderous lunatic who killed at the drop of a hat, who walked at night without fear, who hunted and killed good, average Minecraftians for sport. A lot of these tales weren't true- in reality, you really had to piss Egnazol off to get her to consider murdering you, and more often that not she'd just burn down your house so you could live and suffer for longer. The people she did murder, however, she always had good reasons for. She never spoke of her first kills to anyone, when she spoke at all, but it was generally accepted that something terrible had happened when she was young and caused her to go on a murderous rampage and become what she was now.

But, thanks to all the people who where after her blood, Egnazol moved around a lot, never staying in one place for more than a few months. Generally she stayed far from civilisation, further than most loners, where one could walk through a biome and see no other trace of Minecraftian habitation. She loved the remoteness; it was another symbol of her freedom.

And if there was one thing Egnazol could never, never live without, it was freedom.

So she roamed. Egnazol had just packed up from living in a swamp biome, deciding to leave in the evening and travel during the night. The Night-creatures held no fear to her- she wasn't called a master swordsman for nothing, you know. She left a lot of stuff behind, in her rough shack, but it was mostly the boring, everyday stuff like leftover sticks and rotten flesh that one accumulated when living in the wild. She had seen a plains biome in the distance as she had left, but she generally avoided that particular kind of biome- it was more likely to be inhabited, and it provided very little cover from potential enemies. After a long walk around the boundary of the swamp, she found a nice, hilly forest biome. She was pleased by this, as it had been a while since she had stayed in one of these biomes- before the swamp she'd stayed in a jungle far to the west, and before that in a cave under a desert biome.

The stars began to glow upon the carpet of darkening sky above. The clouds were scarce, with only a few wisps visible against the sunset. It was all very beautiful, and Egnazol felt quite peaceful as she stepped lightly under the grey-brown eves of the forest. Being a murderer doesn't automatically make one hate such things. As Egnazol walked, she kept a sharp eye out for any signs of Minecraftian activity- she knew there was a road to the north that many Minecraftians walked through to trade with other cities, but they mostly kept to the path, which was quite a way away in itself. She also carefully examined the hills for a good spot to set up her new house. Not a home, of course- she had no home, for homes contained secrets, lies and hate. She had learnt that lesson a long time ago.

She scrambled up the edge of a hill, deciding to go and look from a height. She heard the distant moan of a zombie, but decided to ignore it. If the monster spotted her, she would deal with it then. She slid on the edge of one block, before scrambling to her feet at the top of the hill. She could new see the low-lying swamp biome a way behind her, and the hills of the forest biome before her. She frowned as she spotted a light in the dark night behind a hill. A lava pit, perhaps? They were uncommon in forest biomes, but not unheard of. Curiosity hooked it's claws into Egnazol, and she began making her way around the ridges of the hills towards the light. If it _was _lava, if would be useful to know it existed here.

She peeked over the hill to see that the light was coming from a shallow cave. At this proximity, she figured that the light was too pale to be lava- lava had a distinctive red light. This light could come from a torch, a furnace, or a jack o' lantern. All of these were man-made, of course.

Egnazol's thoughts darkened. A Minecraftian, out this far in the wild? What the nether did it think this was, scout camp? One doesn't just leave lights glowing for anyone to see. This was just another example of how stupid Minecraftians could be, and another reason she should go down and put whoever it was out of their misery before a zombie did. She silently made her way down the other side of the hill, unsheathing her sword (with just a little too much practised ease), and crouched at the mouth of the cave, peering into the light.

Inside, just as she suspected, glowed a large torch that had been placed on the floor. Beside it sat a small, male Minecraftian, dressed in rich but dirty clothes. Egnazol wondered whether she should attack him for the sake of appearances, but she was too curious to see what he was doing. Well, she could always attack the man after interrogating him. Egnazol took a deliberate step forward, and the noise of her foot on stone made the man's head whip around to stare at her.

"Where'd you come from?" the man asked, looking frightened.

She stared at the man for a second. The man looked confusedly back. Wait; didn't he recognise her? They usually did... her ego shrivelled a little, but she brushed it aside. She would make him pay later.

Egnazol grinned. "I might ask the same of you, friend," she said, putting on her best hero-freindly-chap act. She wanted to know what this man was doing before she reverted to her normal creepy-insane-murderer self.

"Oh," the man said, clearly disconcerted. "I'm lost. Who're you?"

"Sarah," Egnazol said, coming up with the name on the spot, then smirked as she added; "Nice to meet you, Lost."

"Oh, ha ha," said the man, clearly not amused. "My name's Fredrickson"

"Long name."

"You're telling _me_. But anyhow, why are you here?" Fredrickson said, watching as Egnazol sat on some of the stone on the opposite side of the torch.

"Oh, I was just wandering around, and saw your torch. Thought I'd check it out." Egnazol said casually. She found the best way to lie was to be vague, and let others make the assumptions. "How did you get lost?"

"Well... you see, I was travelling to a small village out on the outskirts... they needed help Crafting swords, since they don't have their own Crafter," Fredrickson explained a pained look on his face. "On the way, I was ambushed by night-creatures, and I had to run off the path. I found my way here, and now I'm just waiting for daytime."

Egnazol blinked in surprise. "Wait- you're a _Crafter?_" It was nearly impossible to tell male Crafters apart from normal males. The ability to Craft was a genetic trait that allowed certain people to have particular powers, such as being able to summon items over a short distance, keep said items in an invisible inventory, and 'Craft' new items extremely quickly. Crafters where uncommon in Minecraftia, but not rare, and occurred in large numbers in Minecraftia's capital.

"Yeah," Fredrickson said, looking her up and down as he spoke, "And by the looks of it, you are too!"

Of course Egnazol was a Crafter. Unlike male Crafters, female Crafters where easy to tell apart; for reasons only Notch knew, female Crafters had a distinct lack of feminine features, particularly the features necessary for reproduction. It was still quite clear that they were female, with the lack of hair on their faces and longer hair on their heads, but they were all quite unable to do the greatest thing that set females apart from males – have children. Egnazol didn't mind this, as she had absolutely no plans to have children, but she preferred to wear baggy clothes to disguise her different figure. It wasn't that she was embarrassed; it was just that some circumstances needed secrecy about her abilities.

"Hm," Egnazol acknowledged his assumption, too annoyed by his observation to have a proper answer. She disliked it when people knew too much about her when she was undercover- though this hardly counted as undercover.

"It's hard, being like this, isn't it?" the man said wistfully. Egnazol barely stopped herself from attacking him there and then; what did he have to feel hard-done-by?

"I can feel it pulling at me now," Fredrickson said. "It wants me to get to the village right now, no matter if I have to navigate a forest of night creatures. It's like an itch I can't scratch. I know it's for the best, but at times like this I wish I was free to make my own decisions. I can't turn back home until I reach that village, or die trying. You understand what I'm feeling, of course."

Egnazol nodded, but she didn't understand at all. "The Crafter's Contract," she clarified.

This Crafter's Contract, while it bound the other Crafters together, was the greatest thing that set Egnazol apart; for she was not bound by it, and was the only Crafter in the history of Minecraftia to be so. The Crafter's Contract was something that had been created at the end of the Fire Wars, at the birth of Crafting, and it bound every Crafter, everywhere, to the will of the government.

This conversation was beginning to make Egnazol think about how she'd escaped the contract, and she didn't like that at all. She never thought about her past if she could help it... she stood up and turned to leave, too distracted now to think about attacking Fredrickson like she'd meant to.

"Where're you going?" Fredrickson said, looking up at her with confusion.

Egnazol glared at him "Away from here. Just feel glad I don't feel in a murderous mood," she snarled, marching back out of the cave.

"But what do you mean? I don't understand!" Fredrickson cried, running out after her.

In a single moment, Fredrickson felt the cold touch of a blade against his neck. He looked up to see the female crafter glaring at him with fury in her eyes.

"You must be really stupid," Egnazol said through her teeth, "to _not_ recognise a famous murderer when she stands in front of you."

"A _famous_... oh dear Notch." Fredrickson said, fear seeping into his eyes. He took a step back, but the blade followed, cutting slightly as it did and sending blood running down his neck. "You're- you- Egnazol... please don't hurt me..."

"Why not? You're a Minecraftian. I _hate_ Minecraftians. You also tried to compare yourself to me," Egnazol snarled at this, leaning closer, though her sword never moved an inch. "you are _nothing_ like me. You have _nothing_ to complain about in life. I doubt you've even been in a fight before, you pathetic thing."

"I- I-" Fredrickson stuttered, then gulped and seemed to gather all his courage. "At least I'm not as selfish as you. You refuse to use your freedom from the contract for anyone but yourself. You-"

Egnazol, filled with rage, whipped her sword around to slash down the side of his arm. Blood splashed from the open wound and Fredrickson cried out, falling to the ground.

Egnazol, with her sword pointing at his heart now, kneeled next to him where his blood began staining her knees, and hissed in his ear. "Maybe I_ am_ selfish. Maybe I _should_ use my powers for the good of my kind. _Maybe_ I should forget about every _wrong_ that Minecraftians ever committed against me, every _wound_ that Minecraftians have delivered upon me. But the truth is..." her voice was filled with rage, rage for his words and rage for a past that still hurt after all these years, as she spoke the words slowly, "Every man and woman I have ever killed _deserved_ it, and _so do you_."


	3. Chapter 2: Aether

**Me: WELCOME AGAIN, HUMANS!**

**Jerry: And ghosts. I invited a few friends over, not that you'll be able to see them.**

**Me: Right, anyway, another chapter! This one is particularly short, though still awesome, so it'll be followed almost immediately by another LONG chapter.**

**Jerry: Also, we have seen that it is customary to reply to reviews, so the replies will be at the bottom of this chapter.**

**Me: READY STE- GOGOGOOOO!**

* * *

Chapter Two

Aether

* * *

Jens "Jeb" Bergensten walked past the portal on his way to the tea room. It was very early in the morning, and he desperately needed something to wake himself up. He walked into the empty tearoom and set the machine in the corner to make him some tea. Sure, he could have spawned it himself, but he always found tea nicer when it had to be made.

As he waited, he looked out the window and into the dark morning sky. In the distance, he could see rain clouds approaching. How depressing. Jeb made them disappear with a single command, and turned back to pick up his tea, which was waiting, steaming, in the machine for him. Jeb took it and carefully sipped at it, before deciding to leave it to cool for a bit.

He strolled back into the room with the portal, tea in hand, and considered its blue swirling depths. It was the base of the entire tower it stood in, as it was the only way in and out of this dimension. Jeb had programmed the portal himself; it could connect to any portal in the over world, and included blocks for several people that no-one really wanted visiting. Jeb felt rather proud of his success, for there had been no sign of those unwanted people, even the one that had programming skills that matched his (he would never admit that that person had even better skills than he, though many thought he did). Even Notch had once praised this particular piece of work.

Speaking of Notch (well thinking really, but that wasn't the point), Jeb hadn't seen him in a few days. Ever since the monster activity in Minecraftia had increased, he realised. They'd had word that the monsters had been greater in numbers and acting oddly recently, as though preparing for something. Jeb sighed, thinking that this news must have brought back bad memories for Minecraft's creator. Jeb should probably visit him later, and make sure he was alright; after all, as Notch's second in command and eventual successor, he should know if he was unfit to look after his various jobs at the moment. But also, Jeb was good friends with his boss, and hoped he wasn't hurt.

Jeb took a sip of his tea, and frowned curiously as he felt a change in the coding. Someone was coming through the portal, he realised, and wondered who it could be. Most people would still be asleep at this time of day. He watched as the portal rippled, and a tall, clocked figure appeared in it.

Jeb's tea fell from his limp fingers and smashed on the floor. The man, who was one and the same as the person Jeb had been congratulating himself for keeping out of the portal, stepped proudly out of the swirling blue substance and smiled at the shocked Jeb.

"Hello, Bergensten," the man said, using Jeb's last name just to annoy him.

Scowling, Jeb waved his hand and despawned his spilled tea, vowing that if nothing else, this man would pay for making him waste it. "What do you want? Last time I checked, Notch banned you from the Aether," he said.

"Since when has Notch been able to stop me from doing what I want?" the man countered, looking around the room with his strange eyes, then added; "You've renovated in the last 500 years. I'm impressed,"

Jeb glared at the man, the _demon,_ and told him; "Notch _could _delete you."

The man smiled. "We both know he's not going to do that."

It was true. Time and time again, Jeb had begged Notch to remove his creation, but always it was 'Just let me finish this,' or 'maybe later'. Jeb knew Notch still cared for the man, but he also knew that the man wanted nothing more that to destroy the Aether completely. Jeb, being the creator of the Aether, could not allow this.

"You should leave now," Jeb said. He could always kick the man from the Aether if he had to.

The man sighed and shook his head. "I'm just here to talk to Notch."

"Unless you're here to apologise, you can forget it. He's already locking himself up after we heard about the stunt you're pulling with the night-creatures," Jeb spat, not believing for a moment that the man's intentions could be innocent.

"I'm not the one who needs to apologise," the man said, looking unrepentant "you should just be glad I'm trying to help."

"I remember the last time you tried to help. It didn't end prettily." Jeb said, getting angrier and angrier.

"That was different, and it was Notch's fault!"

"Don't blame him for your stupidity!"

The pair glared at each other for a moment, before the man, snarling, turned on his heel and marched back towards the portal.

"Forget it! This is the last time I even try to do something good!" the man paused, and turned back to Jeb, rage clear on his features. "Give notch a message for me, then; tell him, that whatever happens next, it's _his_ fault."

Jeb watched, with furious incredulity, as the man stepped back into the portal and disappeared, back to whatever hole he came from. He continued to stare at the portal for a moment, before running back to the tea room, spawning himself a cup of tea, and downing it in about ten seconds. With a sigh, he spawned another cup, and sipped at that, ignoring the slightly bland taste. What a day this was turning out to be, he thought.

He never told Notch the man's message.

* * *

**Mellifluousness: Ha ha, Because you're SPECIAL. But I hope you're right about the readers!**

**GoDoFbIrD: Good idea, But we're not going to see Fredrickson again ;) He was just a random I used to introduce Egnazol.**

**Lunaris: Well, we're not seeing much of Egnazol in this, or even the next chapter, but soon, I promise. But thanks, I'm pleased with the cover myself!**

**GeneralTumujin: Thanks! Yes, Egnazol does have an interesting past. We learn about that later in the book. And you must be really smart to be doing that. I hate maths, but Egnazol isn't as lazy as me.**

**Sorry if I missed anyone, BUT I WANT TO UPDATE TOO MUCH SO OH WELL.**


	4. Chapter 3: Day of the Creeper

**Me: Well, here's the next chapter. Maybe it wasn't instantly after like I said, but I just didn't like the fact there was barely any character development in Egnazol. You get to know the creepers better than her!**

**Jerry: That's because the creepers are awesome, and this chapter is so SAAAADDDDD to me *cries***

**Me: I know... Poor things. But I won't spoil what happens, SO LET US GO ON!**

* * *

Chapter Three

Day of the Creeper

* * *

With a thud, Egnazol jumped down the side of a steep hill, still annoyed by that crafter. Honestly, he had _nothing _to feel bad about. Crafters bound by the contract simply had to do as he was told- and that was probably a good thing in some people's cases. Sure, Egnazol thought she was lucky to have escaped it, but it couldn't be that bad. The other Crafters didn't have almost everyone in Minecraftia wanting them dead, or the title of murderer hanging over their heads. _They_ didn't have to go through what she did.

She kicked a pebble, which hit a tree and left a satisfying welt in the bark. Egnazol sighed, and put the thoughts out of her mind.

She could see a snow biome in the distance, as well as an extreme hills one a little further away. Egnazol liked extreme hills a lot, for several reasons; first and foremost, they were seldom in habited, as most people didn't have the energy or resources to live in its rough terrain. Also, it was riddled with caves, and Egnazol liked caves, because they were dark and easy to navigate through underground.

All in all, it was a good way to go. The only problem was that she was going to have to go through the snowy taiga biome to get there. Egnazol liked Taiga too, but her warm clothes had been lost a few months earlier, so it wasn't a viable place to set up shop.

Egnazol approached the edge of the snow and looked at it with distaste. Warm clothes or no, the fastest way to that mountains biome was straight through. She trudged forwards, and almost instantly her shoes became soaked as the snow melted from her body heat. Wonderful. Egnazol tried to walk faster, both to get through the snow quickly and trying to keep the blood circulating through her feet.

After a minute of walking, she was halted when she managed to trip on a fallen branch and fall flat on her face into the snow, which joyfully began to melt on her clothes.

"Shit," she mumbled, and got a bit of snow in her mouth.

She rolled over and got to her knees, trying to brush off the snow on jacket before it melted so at least that would be dry, even if her pants where soaked. She was just shaking of a bit of ice from her shoulder when a mark in the snow caught her eye.

It was a strange indent- she only saw it now because she as closer to the ground, so she could see the edges clearer. Shuffling closer, she realised that it was a footprint.

It a had three toes; that meant it wasn't a human, zombie or skeleton's.

it was long, thin and clawed; that meant it wasn't a Creepers or a spiders.

It was only lightly imprinted on the snow; the creature that made it was impossibly light.

There was another just a foot away; it had two legs.

She couldn't see any others leading to or from them; that was impossible.

Egnazol, confused now, got to her feet and looked around for more prints. Even when she didn't find any, she told herself that this didn't mean they weren't there- perhaps they had been covered in snow, and the two she'd seen had been protected. Then again, there hadn't been anything to protect them…

Well, it looked like she'd missed it by a while anyway, so she should just count her lucky charms and leave. She didn't want to run into any strange mutant creatures right now. She stood up, and saw that her sword had fallen out of her belt.

She picked it up, admiring her insignia on the hilt for a moment in the light of dawn. All crafters had an insignia that appeared on all their crafted items, because otherwise the items where almost identical. Egnazol's insignia was a Z with funny squiggles around it, which, like Egnazol herself, was slightly unusual. Most insignias used the first letter of the Crafters name; but Egnazol was one to be fickle. Egnazol put the sword in her belt, and walked on.

As the sun lit the horizon in shades of purple, she saw a bright green tree in the distance, signalling the change of the taiga biome into a forest biome. Finally, she thought, relieved. She headed quickly for it, forgetting the mysterious footprints for a moment.

Right at that moment, the universe decided to remind her that life just never was fair, and three Creepers came scampering towards her from a nearby cave entrance. Egnazol spotted them and sped up, sprinting to the edge of the biome like there was no tomorrow. She knew she was at a disadvantage in the taiga.

The Creepers ran after her like there was no today. Egnazol had never seen Creepers run so fast, but run they did, little pawed feet crunching in the snow. As soon as they were near enough, they started swelling and flashing as Creepers did when hey where about to explode. Egnazol dived forward as the Creepers exploded and she felt the force of the explosion on her back, as her head hit the ground with a painful thud. She slumped to the ground, health depleted and out cold.

* * *

The Creepers, of course, where not dead. They re-spawn a few minutes after they explode, though Minecraftians rarely realise this. Thus, a few minutes later, three Creepers found themselves looking down at the unconscious body of a Minecraftian.

It was for her own good, really. The Creepers weren't out on an ordinary lurk in the forest- they were on a mission. There where forces at work that most of Minecraftia had yet to realise existed, forces that even the developers did not know of, forces that would like nothing better than the destruction of the entire world. And since these forces wanted Egnazol, it was the three Creeper's jobs to make sure they didn't get her- yet, at least.

The first Creeper, who was named Paul, looked down at Egnazol's unconscious body with confusion. She looked almost delicate like this, as if she could break at the lightest touch. But she was also very scary, considering that she had killed hundreds of night-creatures (which was not that many, considering that an average fighter would kill thousands), and many humans too. It was uncommon for a Night-creature to kill a human in their own right, so anyone who had killed more than five was someone to avoid in Paul's books.

Paul shook his head slightly, and looked over at his friends, who were walking around and trying to find a good way to move her.

"Come on, Paul, give us a hand!" said the second Creeper, Tanbark. Together with the third Creeper, Smaug, Tanbark had grabbed the shoulders of Egnazol's coat and begun pulling her along. Creepers often had weird names like this; the Creeper king's name was Walnut, and his son was Pistachio.

Paul sighed and walked over to Egnazol's feet, where he pushed and made sure they didn't get stuck on anything. They headed for the nearest cave; all night creatures had a 'sixth-sense' as to where dark places where nearby, and it had come in useful many times.

Eventually they found their way to a cave entrance, and began pulling Egnazol into its depths. At least the stone was easy to drag her over, Paul though with relief, glancing nervously at all the sticks and leaves caught on her. _She looks like a zombie dragged her through the bushes backward… except this time it was a Creeper…_

After a few minutes of navigating the dark passages, the three Creepers carefully placed Egnazol in a crevice in the wall, where she was hidden from plain sight. They wouldn't need to worry about another night-creature attacking her before she woke up, since these caverns had been evacuated prior, due to the news that the enemy would be nearby. Better safe than sorry.

Mission complete, Paul, Smaug and Tanbark shared what was the closest a creeper got to a smile. Now they just had to make sure Egnazol stayed hidden.

"We should take the sword and some other items," Tanbark said, "and put it in one of the craters, to make it look like we killed her."

Paul and Smaug nodded, since they didn't have any particularly good ideas of their own. Their master hadn't been clear on the next bit- only it was essential that the enemy didn't find Egnazol.

Smaug went around and took Egnazol's iron sword out of her belt and held it carefully in his mouth. This sword had killed monsters like him.

Paul took her pick and her axe. They were lighter than the sword, because they had less metal (or in the pick's case, diamond). Paul was pleased with this arrangement- he thought of himself of an explorer, and now he could say he'd held a pick underground (that was basically mining, and the zombies wouldn't know the difference).

Tanbark, ironically, took a stack of wood. Luckily the blocks bound together in item form, so Tanbark only had to hold one to take the lot. Still, it looked difficult, but it was all vital to the affect.

They left Egnazol in the cave and walked back out into the sun. Creepers weren't allergic to the sun, though it hurt their eyes, and it didn't hold too much of a disadvantage to them, since their green skin camouflaged them in all light levels. They found the site of their explosions and scattered the tools and blocks around as if they'd been scattered after an explosion.

Then they waited. They tried wandering around like they would normally, but didn't dare go out of sight of the craters. Eventually Paul, who was bored, wandered back towards them and peered down at the sword. Egnazol's insignia was rather stylish, he thought, it has all those sharp zig-zaggy lines that fit into the Z. He wondered why she didn't use the letter E, like most crafters would if they had her name. There was nothing wrong with E, he thought; his best friend was named Echo, and he also knew someone called Elm, and they were both good, respectable creepers. Then again, he didn't know any whose names started with Z-

Out of the blue, Paul felt a large, thin hand warp itself around his body. He cried out in surprise, and tried to turn to see what it was, but couldn't see more that a hint of black.

_Oh Herobrine_, he thought, remembering what was black, had large skinny hands and who he really shouldn't have been surprised to see here_. Please don't let it be…_

"Paul!" Smaug shouted "Hold on!" Paul turned slightly to see his two friends running towards him.

Smaug and Tanbark hissed and flashed at Paul's captor, the intimidating threat a creeper wove when he or she where going to explode. Clearly, however, the two were just trying to get it to drop Paul, since if they exploded now, they would hurt him.

Paul was just about to tell them to just blow, when another hand shot out and tore at Tanbark with deadly claws. Tanbark collapsed into dust.

"No!" Smaug cried, and then turned to face the enemy again, swelling in preparation to blow. "You sick son of a-" before he could finish, the hand swiped at him, too, and he fell beside his friend.

"No…" Paul moaned. They had died because of him, and he felt absolutely awful.

He thought; _stuff this. I'm going to take this… asshole down if it's the last thing I do!_ (Paul wasn't fond of bad swear words, even now). With a hiss, he set of the chemical reactions inside him that would make him blow up.

There was a chuckle, and a potato was stuffed down the creepers throat. Paul reluctantly swallowed, and felt the chemicals within him calm. This was another interesting fact about creepers that many Minecraftians did not know; they, like all creatures, needed to eat, but the chemicals inside their bodies- the chemicals that made them explode- often reacted badly to most foods. In the end, They had discovered that three things could be eaten without risk; wheat, carrots and potatoes. The only thing was that it actually stopped them from exploding for a while afterwards.

"**Where is she?**" a deep, bubbly voice said from behind him. Paul still couldn't see its eyes.

"We killed her," Paul snarled, almost wishing they had, just to see the reaction. "It was the safest way to keep you from her."

It laughed at this, and Paul got the idea that it hadn't bought his bluff. "**I know your master must have commanded that no harm be brought to her- like the coward he is.**"

Paul was offended now, as well as furious. His master was no coward, thank you. "What do you think he would choose; the life of a murderer, or the life of every creature in Minecraftia?"

"**Where is she**?" the creature snarled, impatient. It still didn't turn Paul so he could look at its eyes. It was slightly strange- the basis of civilisation, night-creature or otherwise, was eye contact. You looked at people's eyes as you talked to them, or even plain looked at them. Even chickens would make eye contact if you approached. And here the creature was avoiding it.

"She's dead," insisted the creeper stubbornly.

"**You**-!" the creature said, hand tightening around Paul's body, before loosening again. "**Fine. I'll bring you back with me, and you will ****wish****you'd told me now."**

"Do your worst," the creeper said, not meaning it, but hopeful he could buy his master some time.

Then both creeper and captor disappeared in a flurry of purple particles, to places unknown, where the worst really did await. That creeper would never step free on Minecraftian soil again, but it's last thoughts where that at least the world would be safe for a little longer. Hopefully.


	5. Chapter 4: Runes and Ruins

**Me: Velcome bak, my preshuses! Is time for another chapter! **

**Jerry: Drop the accent and no-one gets hurt *points cream bun threateningly***

**Me: CREAM BUN *stare***

**Jerry: SHI- *runs away***

**Me: CREEEAMMM BUUUNNNN COOMMMEEE BAAAACKKKKK**

**Jerry: And thus, we introduce this chapter with a bout of insanity. How delightfuuuuuuu-**

**Me: *GLOMP***

* * *

Chapter Five

Runes and Ruins

* * *

The zombies stood in a circle around the two piles of grey dust, their often slightly mangled heads lowered in sadness. The creepers that had set out on a mission had not checked in, so they had been sent to find them, and this was what they had found.

The poor things, they all thought.

"But weren't there three creepers?" one suddenly said to its fellows.

The zombies blinked and looked at each other. Had there been? There were only two piles here…

"Yeah…" another said slowly "there was Tanbark, Smaug… and Paul! Paul definitely came!"

"Smaug was a story teller." One Zombie commented, "He used to tell me stories of slaughtering cows when I was a newly-converted baby."

They lapsed into silence again for a few minutes.

"Do you think we should tell the boss about there being only two piles and all?" one zombie said after a while.

"Probably should."

"Yeah."

"We might as well say something."

"Vernon can go!" one zombie piped up excitedly.

The zombie groaned in unison. "You're an idiot, Sal. We just need to write some runes on the ground to call him."

"Oh." said Sal.

After a few minutes of argument over which runes where right and a small punch-up between Sal and Vernon, they agreed on some they all thought sounded familiar. Together they gouged out the lines of the runes in the dirt, and eventually found themselves looking down on two huge runes.

After a minute of waiting, they realised it hadn't worked. They all swore and looked around for something to kill. There wasn't anything, so a few tried punching trees, which only resulted in pain.

Sal, who had been busy calling Vernon a series of extremely rude words, looked over. "Wait, are you trying to summon _Him_?" she said, scratching her slightly bald and slightly green head. "No, it's _these _ones." She bent down and scribbled a few things, and stepped back.

While the other zombies gave Sal very annoyed looks and Vernon punched her in the face, the runes at her feet lit up like a light source, and before they could blink a figure appeared atop them.

"What?" their Master snapped, looking extremely annoyed. "If this is about Gerald again, I'll despawn the lot of you."

Feeling glad they had chosen to leave Gerald behind, they explained the piles of dust and the lack of a third. Their Master looked more and more worried, and went over to examine them

After examining them for a moment, their Master took a step back and raised his hand. The piles trembled and floated into the air, becoming the misty forms of two creepers.

"Smaug and Tanbark" their Master said, identifying the two ghost-creepers, who faded into nothing. "Paul is missing…"

Pacing and ignoring the zombies, who were looking rather pathetically sad, he thought about the situation.

"So they knew I would send someone. They must've known she was near… but not exactly where." he said out loud. Then he froze. "But now, they must know she's close by, and vulnerable-"

He pointed at the zombies, who stood at attention. "Search the nearby area. We need to find her, fast!"

* * *

Egnazol quietly stirred, coming back into consciousness. She dimly wondered how long she'd been out, and why it was so cold. Slowly, she blinked open her eyes, and looked around.

It was dark. She was confused- surely she hadn't been out for that long. And for that matter, she couldn't see the stars! She sat up, and abruptly realised why it was dark when she whacked her head against a stone ledge. She was in a cave.

Wincing and holding her head, she reached out and felt the walls around her. It seemed like she was in a four-by-four side-cave that connected to a larger cave up ahead. Egnazol reached through her inventory, looking for torches, but only found coal, which was no good anyway since she didn't have any wood. It was strange, because she was sure she'd had a stack of it before… it was when she noticed this absence, she realised that there were several other items absent- specifically her axe, sword and diamond pick.

"Shit, shit, shit…" Egnazol muttered under her breath as she quickly got to her knees and began feeling around the floor. It was cold and flat, and there was no sign of her tools. She sighed and felt above her, before getting to her feet and feeling her way into the main cave.

She wondered how in Notch's name she'd ended up in a cave in the first place. As she saw it, there were three possibilities;

One: she had actually died and Respawned in this cave for some reason. Unlikely, but possible.

Two: she had wandered here in her sleep. This was not unheard of.

Three: someone had moved her here. This was the most likely, and the most disturbing.

Egnazol peered around the corner, into the big cave. She could just make out the shapes of the blocks around her, thought there was no light source in sight. To her left, the tunnel began to bend downwards, into the darkness. To her right, the tunnel got smaller, but looked like it was going upwards. There was some iron in the wall opposite, but she couldn't mine it without her pick.

She was quite disturbed by the idea that someone had been nearby when she had been defenceless, and even more so that that person hadn't killed her. Egnazol was valuable dead- the government had at least a hundred emeralds on offer for the person who killed or captured her. Of course, this was assuming she hadn't just wandered here in her sleep.

Sighing, she stepped out into the cave and began making her way up the right tunnel. After a minute of clambering upwards, she suddenly heard footsteps, and the moan of a zombie. She dived behind an outcrop of stone in a last-ditch attempt to avoid detection, but it was useless, since zombies could see in the dark.

True to form, when the zombie appeared around the corner, its head snapped around to look at her with its hollow eyes. It have an excited howl, and made a gesture one could only describe as a 'fist pump', before leaning down, and began scratching the stone dust on the floor.

Egnazol watched in confusion. "What in the world are you doing?" she asked, not expecting it to answer.

It looked up at her as it finished scratching the dust, and pointed up. This made no sense to Egnazol, and she began to wonder if she should attack. Just as she thought this, however, the scratches on the ground lit up, and Egnazol realised they were runes. She backed away, wondering how a zombie would know how to use runes. Only priests knew how to use the runes of the Aether…

As she wondered at this, a figure appeared atop the runes and stumbled forward in an undignified manner. Egnazol stared in complete confusion as the figure said something that sounded like a swear word, but she had never heard of it, and straightened.

The figure stood up, and Egnazol realised with surprise that it was a completely average Minecraftian. He was wearing a cloak that hid his features from view, but something he was carrying was emitting light, which made it seem as though his face was glowing. Why in the world had he appeared on the runes? Who was he?

And what in the name of Notch was that black thing standing behind him?


	6. Chapter 5: Blood

**Me: *to busy to talk, chewing on cream bun***

**Jerry: Well, this is the chapter where there is a reason this story is rated T. It's rather gruesome, really, but quite necessary for the plot line.**

**Me: *pauses from eating* Well, remember that I'm not that good with gore, so it can't be _that_ bad. Can it?**

**Jerry: Can I have some bun?**

**Me: NO. GET YOUR OWN.**

**Jerry: … but it _was_ mine...**

* * *

Chapter five

Blood

* * *

She stared at the creature. It was vaguely humanoid, but three blocks tall, and ridiculously, _impossibly, _thin. Its skin was covered in black scales, criss-crossed with jagged markings, and floating around it were several purple particles that seemed to seep from its scales. Its proportionally large hands and feet ended in long, deadly claws. But the most fascinating, and disturbing aspect of this creature was its eyes; far too big for its face, but still oddly fitting, the purple eyes glowed brighter than glowstone. As she stared at the eyes in awe, the creature's mouth opened, revealing sharp white teeth. Then, a buzzing sound began- it built and built into a sound that made the hairs on the back of Egnazol's neck prickle, and her heart beat a little faster as adrenalin chorused through her body, knowing that whatever it was, it was absolutely terrifying and was more than capable of inflicting damage.

"Enderman!"

Wait, what? Egnazol looked back at the Minecraftian, who she had forgotten about for a moment. Was he saying that the creature was an Enderman? What in Minecraftia was an Enderman, anyway?

The man yelled something in a different language. This was odd, because other languages, along with accents (which this person also seemed to have), did not exist in Minecraftia. The zombie, who was still standing there, nodded and lurched towards Egnazol, hands extended. Egnazol was gripped with fear- she didn't have anything to protect herself!

But before the zombie could take another step, it found itself almost torn in two by the Enderman's claws. It fell to the ground and died, because even the Undead cannot take that much damage. The Enderman stood over it, its mouth gaping, and it slowly turned to face her.

Shit. If that thing could kill a zombie in one hit, she was pretty much stuffed.

There was a cry, and the strange Minecraftian shot forward, embedding a sword in the Enderman's side. Egnazol watched this with slight interest, recognising the anger in his eyes as one people often saw in her own- a look of vengeance. The slice revealed that on the inside, the Enderman was actually made of billions of purple sparks, which floated out of it and disappeared. The Enderman howled in pain and turned on the man, sending him crashing across the cavern with a single swipe. She heard the man's neck crack, and he tumble to the floor, where he faded into nothing.

Egnazol slowly turned to look at the beast again, trembling with fear. She hadn't thought much of the other's presences before, but now she was alone this entire situation was too much. She didn't know what was going on, but she knew a sword was a sword, and the sword lying where the Minecraftian had once lain was her best hope for survival.

So, just as the Enderman lunged for her, she dived for the sword and grabbed its hilt in an expert grip. She hardly noticed that it was diamond, or that it was enchanted- because the Enderman was coming towards her again. She lunged forward, trying to aim for its thin chest, and quite suddenly it disappeared.

Egnazol stumbled forward, surprised by the sudden occurrence, and looked around. It had gone. How was that possible? Had it Despawned?

Neither of these questions was answered, however, when Egnazol felt three claws slice across her back, through skin and flesh. Blood splashed to the ground, and Egnazol turned through a haze of pain to face the Enderman, still staring with its mouth open. She lunged, and the sword finally hit flesh, digging deep into the Enderman's chest. She could feel there was actually something hard inside it, like bone, but it was round and in the wrong place. Not giving it much thought, she ripped the sword down through purple flesh.

The Enderman fell to the ground as the particles inside it performed a mass evacuation, and dissolved harmlessly in the air. Its dark skin dissolved too, until Egnazol was left staring blankly at a round, shiny object lying on the floor, with not a speck of purple in sight. The Enderman was dead.

This is the part where you might expect that, after a noble Minecraftian had died helping her and having her back practically torn open, she would get up and walk into the sunset, find medical help, or maybe someone would turn up and help her. Unfortunately, the world doesn't work like that, and when Egnazol finally looked around, it was to see a circle of Endermen surrounding her.

With blood seeping from the open wounds on her back, she shakily lifted the sword. Her vision began to blur, and she knew she wasn't going to make it. She'd seen wounds like this before- it wouldn't be long until she died if she didn't get medical attention.

Part of her was panicking- she didn't want to die. She had so much to live for. Adventure, building, vengeance…

Part of her was almost glad it was over. This past was the part that spoke last, as the blood-loss finally took its toll and she crumpled to the ground.

_Well, at least it wasn't some stinking human that got me in the end._

She felt cold, clawed hands lift her into the air as the world faded into darkness.

* * *

**Me: So, short and sweet. We're getting into the swing of things here, and it's GOING TO GET INTERESTING.**

**Jerry: And humans really do stink. Have you ever smelt yourselves? Blech.**


	7. Chapter 6: Hope is for fools

**Me: Well, this is the final chapter of this book-in-a-book. I know this first part is a little tedious, but IT GETS BETTER. I PROMISE.**

**Jerry: It's always easier to write well when there are interactions with other characters, and thus far Egnazol has been on her own.**

**Me: How would you know? You don't write.**

**Jerry: I'll have you know that I contributed to 'the hobbit' back when I was just a hobbit-shapeshifter and not a ghost-wraith-hobbit-shapeshifter.**

**Me: Suuuuuure you did.**

**Jerry: *Glare***

* * *

Chapter Six

Hope is for fools

* * *

Shadow-Mine was in chaos.

The man who had died trying to kill the Enderman looked down at the city of the night-creatures from his window in the fortress. Zombies where running to and thro, yelling and screaming like the idiots they were, though everyone ignored them. The skeletons were preparing their bows and trading in their emeralds for new ones. The spiders where looking for jockeys to ride them. The slimes where eating as much as they could. The creepers where patiently staying out of the way, because excitement tended to have disastrous results where they were concerned.

All because he had failed. The man sighed and turned back to the table, where a massive spider, a huge slime, a creeper with a crown, a zombie, and a skeleton wearing a Robin Hood hat sat.

"I still don't get why she's so special," the zombie said. Her name was Patty, and she had to be one of the ugliest zombies in existence.

"We've already told you why, Patty," the creeper hissed exasperatedly. "At least three times now."

"Excuse_ me_ if my brain's been knocked around a bit," the zombie said defensively

"I wouldn't expect you to understand anyway," the man said, and the monsters turned to look at him. "Sometimes I don't either."

"Well I don't stand a chance, then," Patty huffed, rolling her eyes.

The man shrugged and soberly turned away to look out the window again. The monsters watched him, and looked at each other with knowing glances.

"Don't feel bad, it caught you off guard," Patty said to the man.

"I know," the man said. "But that doesn't change the fact that they have her."

They were all silent for a moment.

"Are you sure she was taken? She was said to be a talented fighter," the spider, who only went by the name Empress, said. "Maybe she killed it."

"That Enderman killed Sal in one blow," the man said, glaring. "And I'm sure there were more on the way."

"I know, I was just trying to point out that there's _hope…_" Empress said slowly, eyeing the man warily. He was known to get angry very easily.

The man snorted with contempt at the word hope, pacing towards the table.

"There's nothing wrong with hope. Hope inspires courage," the slime said.

"Hope is for fools who can't cope with the truth," the man snarled, sitting on his chair with a thump.

The others knew better than to push the argument further. For a few more moments, they all waited in silence for the man to speak again.

"You'll need to prepare your troops; we can't afford to let them keep her too long," the man said, standing up again. He was restless- how could he not be, after what had happened?

"Wait, you're planning to storm their stronghold?" the skeleton said, shocked.

The man sighed again. "Do you have any better ideas?"

No-one did. In the end, the mob leaders, for that was who the mobs at the table were, exited the room to organise their troops. The man was left standing by the window, lost in his hopeless thoughts of destruction that would surely come. Then, suddenly, there was a spark of hopeful thought, which quickly turned into a series of ideas, and a grin crept onto the man's face. Maybe there was a good side to this. It was time to take the offensive.

* * *

**END OF BOOK ONE**

* * *

**Me: Don't worry though, the books continue inside this fanfic, so you won't need to follow another story or anything.**

**Jerry: The next book is H-**

**Me: *puts hand over Jerry's mouth* -WILL BE RELEASED SOON. UNTILL THEN, LIVE LONG AND PROSPER.**


	8. Chapter 1: Dying breaths

**Me: THE NEXT BOOK BEGINS! And now, things begin to get leeeeetle interesting. I know the first book was a little boring, but this one is better. I PROMISE.**

**Jerry: And it has character development on Egnazol's part! How fascinating!**

**Me: also, peoples who are reading this, REMEMBER TO REVIEW. Now school is over, REVIEWS ARE WHAT FUEL ME. And don't forget that I can see all of you viewing this page… *STALK***

* * *

**BOOK TWO**

**Herobrine**

_Evil is just the opposing side of the fight- whoever wins, one kind of evil or another will triumph._

* * *

Chapter one

Dying breaths

* * *

Fingers twitched, dried blood cracking under the movement. Egnazol slowly blinked her blue eyes open, and gazed mindlessly at the blurry world around her. She tried to shift slightly, but as she did a searing pain blazed across her back, causing her to wince and stop moving.

She decided to find out more about her surroundings instead of moving. Her vision had cleared up a bit now, but it was still wobbly and seemed to distort in places. She saw that she was in a room with walls made of stone brick, with a tiny amount of light coming through a window of iron bars in the wall. There was an iron door, but it was locked, for such is the nature of iron doors.

Egnazol sighed and closed her eyes again. She knew the Endermen must have taken her here, for some reason. She could feel a bandage of some kind wrapped around her torso, covering the gashes on her back, and stopping her from losing too much blood. Clearly the Endermen wanted her alive, at least for now.

This brought Egnazol back to the question of why? Why had they brought her here? And what, in the name of Notch, actually _were_ they? She knew there was no such mob as they that lived in Minecraftia, so where had they come from? Her blood-deprived mind couldn't answer this, and found that this situation was all too much. She curled up, ignoring the pain in her back, and fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

A day later, Egnazol woke up, feeling slightly better. The wounds had healed slightly, she thought, but it still hurt to move at all. She saw that somehow, while he had been asleep, a loaf of bread had been deposited beside her. She carefully reached out with her more uninjured arm, and brought it towards her. She could feel that it was stale, but she didn't give it a second thought as she began munching through it. She just hoped it wasn't drugged.

After she had finished, she thought it time to see what this place was all about. Very carefully, she got to her feet, and looked around. The room was completely featureless other than the window and door. She limped over to the window and gave the bars a feeble tug. All this resulted in was her back complaining fiercely and sending a new wave of blood down her back. Egnazol shivered, and looked into the hall outside.

It was stone brick too, and there was a torch on the wall casting light into the cell. There was also a cell opposite her. She peered in, and saw movement.

"Hey," she said softly, voice harsh from misuse. "Anyone there?"

There was a sharp movement that indicated surprise from whatever was in there, and a face appeared in the window. It was a man with curly brown hair, who looked much the worse for wear with bruises and cuts on his face.

"Oh Notch," he said, looking at her with horror. "You're a crafter, aren't you?" It was fairly clear, since female crafters always had such different body shapes to normal females.

"Yeah" Egnazol said, wondering what that had to do with this. "Who are you?"

"My name is Kollyn, and I am is good as dead, thanks to you." he spat.

"Why?" Egnazol asked, not feeling sorry for this man at all. "I don't think I'm up for killing you in this state."

"I didn't mean literally, you weirdo," Kollyn said, giving her a peculiar look. "And why have you got blood all over you?"

"Got my back sliced when I was killing an Enderman," Egnazol said shrugging, trying to be nonchalant even though this had to be the worst wound she'd ever had in her life. "But what's crafting to do with this?"

"You killed- you know what, never mind." Kollyn said, shaking his head "You're a whacko, I shouldn't ask. As for crafting… well, it's complicated."

"I'm good with complicated," Egnazol said, shrugging. She wasn't really, but she wanted to know what was going on.

Kollyn looked at her suspiciously for a moment, then said; "Fine, but at least tell the dead man your name."

"…You can call me Jerry," Egnazol said. Most people didn't like to give murderers information, so it was best if she kept her name to herself for now.

"Okay,_ Jerry_," Kollyn said, clearly not believing her name, "it works like this; the Endermen need a crafter to craft something for them, because they can't do it on their own. I'm not sure what, but I've heard them speak of pearls and dragons, so it might have something to do with that. The only problem is that, like I'm sure you know, a crafter's contract forbids them to craft for a non-human. Despite that, they took me, and have been trying to torture it out of me ever since."

"Well, shit," Egnazol swore, realising exactly what use the Endermen would have for the only crafter in existence that wasn't bound by a contract.

"Touché," Kollyn said, leaning against his window and looking hard done by, "Now you're here, they've clearly decided I'm useless and are going to get rid of me."

"I don't doubt it," Egnazol said vaguely, not paying attention.

"Gee, thanks," Kollyn said with distaste. "With an attitude like that, you'd be good friends with Egnazol."

"Funny you would say that," Egnazol said, startled out of her thoughts. "Did you know Egnazol is the only crafter without a contract?"

"She is?" Kollyn said, eyes widening. "But if the Endermen got her, there would be nothing between them and-! Oh, Notch!" He started pacing behind his window.

Egnazol snorted at the irony and propped her hands up on the sill of the window, deciding to let him worry about that a little longer before she told him the truth. "So, anything I should know about these Endermen?"

"Firstly, you can rule out water torture. They seem to dislike that," Kollyn said, as he rubbed his hand through his filthy hair. "No idea why, though."

"I meant more along the lines of 'what are they, and where did they come from?'"

"There's no need to put on a brave face about the torture, you know. We're all as low as worms here. Probably lower, since we're underground," Kollyn said, grinning slightly as he came back to stand by the window.

Egnazol gave him a look of derision. "I've dealt with torture before, mate. I'll be fine. Now, answer the question."

"Fine, fine, be that way. I honestly don't know that much. I know that they come from a place they call 'The End', where their master lives. They're here doing something for said master, which involves crafting, which is why we're here."

"The End. Does that mean they're time travelers, or something?" Egnazol wondered out loud.

"Don't be ridiculous. Time travel doesn't exist," Kollyn said, waving his hand in the same manner one would wave aside a platter of carrots. "From what I've heard, it sounded like another dimension, like the Nether or the Aether."

Another dimension? How was that possible? Egnazol wondered, beginning to feel tired again. Stupid blood loss. Sometimes she wished she was a zombie so she didn't have to deal with the living body.

"Their master can't get to this dimension, for some reason, and they can't communicate with it either, so they are left acting on its last orders," Kollyn continued, and then frowned. "Are you alright?"

"Fine, I've just lost a lot of blood and my back's torn open," Egnazol said vaguely. "Thanks for the info, but I think I'm going to sit down."

"Go ahead. You're going to need your strength, trust me," Kollyn said, shrugging.

Egnazol turned away, and carefully sank into a sitting position against the wall. She knew that even though her wounds had been bandaged, there was still a strong chance she wouldn't make it. Only now it was going to be more long-winded and painful and probably filled with torture, from what she'd gathered from Kollyn. With that in mind, she quickly fell into a deep sleep, slumped against the wall.

* * *

**Me: What a wonderful thought to fall asleep on. They say that you dream about the last thing you think about before you fall asleep… Not that I spend my time thinking about cassowaries with giant coal formations on their heads… or maybe that was chickens.**

**Jerry: CHICKENS.**


	9. Chapter 2: It burns

**Me: This is just another little chapter where Egnazol thinks about some things. Or refuses to think about some things. :3 we also discover that Endermen have a weakness.**

**Jerry: CHICKENS.**

* * *

Chapter 2

It burns

* * *

Egnazol was quite pleased with the rate at which her back was healing, given that the only thing stopping her from bleeding out was a large bandage. She could now stand and walk to the window without too much difficulty, although she had to sit down after a while.

A few days after she was brought there, she got Kollyn to tell her what they looked like when she took off the bandage. It wasn't that awkward, since they both knew that female Crafters had different body shapes, but nevertheless they both got a nasty surprise; because, for some strange reason, the skin and flesh around the wounds had turned bright, gleaming purple, almost like the insides of the Endermen themselves.

Egnazol had begun to panic; what if she was turning into an Enderman? Was this some plan to force her to help them? She knew there was nothing she could do, but wait and hope her suspicions were incorrect.

On the same day as she discovered the freaky discolouration, an Enderman came to visit her while she was waking. The conversation went like this;

"**Cover your eyes,**" a bubbly voice said, and Egnazol saw the corner of its arm in the window.

Egnazol thought about this for a moment, and then stubbornly told the Enderman the she wouldn't unless it told her why.

The Enderman seemed to hesitate. "**All creatures have the urge to look into another's eyes. If your eyes are covered, you will not be vulnerable to this urge.**"

"And why is looking at eyes a problem?" Egnazol asked, smiling slightly. She hoped she was getting on its nerves.

There was silence for a moment, and Egnazol wondered if it was going to answer. Then, once again, it spoke.

"**Usually it is our prey that meets our eyes. Due to this, we have developed an instinct to attack whatever looks at our eyes. We do not want any unauthorised attacking,**" it said carefully.

Egnazol frowned. That was interesting... what were the Endermen preying on, then? She covered her eyes for the Enderman, and it entered. It seemed to be doing something to the wall, but Egnazol couldn't see, for obvious reasons.

"So, what's your prey, then?" she asked the Enderman conversationally, "also, do you have a name?"

"**My name would be unpronounceable to you**," the Enderman said, pausing in its work.

"Try me."

Indeed, the Enderman said something that was completely incomprehensible. It seemed to involve breathing and clacking of teeth. Cahk- no, charck- uh, crack...

"No, there's no way I'll be able to pronounce that." Egnazol conceded. "I'll call you Fred, for now."

The Enderman seemed to laugh, a soft, burbling laugh that honestly Egnazol quite liked. "So, what's this prey you mentioned? I'm curious." she asked again.

"**It can be any number of things**," Fred said, continuing with its work. "**As long as it is sentient and living. For example, Minecraftians**."

Egnazol grimaced, knowing that however much she hated it, she was a Minecraftian too. "I see. But I haven't heard many reports of you guys in Minecraftia, so Minecraftians can't be your only prey- what else have you been hunting?"

"**Things from other dimensions**," Fred said "**anything lesser to us**."

Egnazol frowned. "Who're you calling lesser?"

"**Everything, really. Endermen are the greatest power in all the dimensions- though some of you have yet to accept it.**"

Egnazol moved her hands so she could see the floor, and then located the Enderman's feet. She wasn't looking at its eyes, so she would be safe.

"Accept this," she said, and spat on its foot.

This had a very fascinating reaction. The spit seemed to dissolve the dark scales on the foot, exposing the purple particles inside it. Fred shrieked in pain and teleported away. Egnazol was left sitting there with her hand on her eyes, and realised that the Endermen were allergic to her spit. Or maybe it was because spit had a lot of water in it? Kollyn had mentioned that they didn't like water…

The day after that, the Endermen came for Kollyn. The male Crafter yelled and resisted, but in the end, they dragged him away to places unknown. Egnazol never saw him again. She kind of felt sorry for the guy, despite him being a civilised person, because he'd been quite friendly even when he'd found out that she was a serial killer. There had been a wall between them, she supposed, but Kollyn had continued talking to her, which was more than she'd expected. Egnazol decided that if she ever had the chance, she'd look around to see what happened to him.

So, with her back torn open and her flesh turning purple, she found herself alone in the depths of this jail. The Endermen no longer visited while she was awake- she supposed that she'd scared them off with her spit. The thought made her giggle a little- these tall, clawed creatures afraid of a little spit. Maybe the blood-loss was getting to her, she thought, but this all seemed a little funny to her. But she'd always been insane, so there was that.

But the fact that nothing was happening was having a side effect- it was making her think about things she didn't want to think about. She thought about why she hated civilisation, about why she wasn't bound like the other Crafters, and about why she was called a murderer. These things were things she refused to dwell on, but it was hard to ignore them in the quiet. She caught herself thinking about her past more than once, and found it hard to stop. She tried designing houses in the dust on the floor, but her thoughts kept leading backwards.

She hated it. She hated not being able to do anything, she hated being stuck here, and she hated not being free. She needed things to distract her, and she needed to breath fresh air, and she needed OUT. She hated these Endermen for doing this to her, and if she ever got the chance, she would rip them all into shiny, purple _confetti_.

And in the silence of her prison, she waited for something to happen, thinking to herself about turning into an Enderman, about Kollyn, about that zombie and the Minecraftian that she still hadn't figured out, and about her past, because really she couldn't do much else.

* * *

**Me: Poor Egnazol. She's had it rough. We'll learn more about this interesting past later.**


	10. Chapter 3: Him

**Me: SO MANY REVEIWS I AM SO HAPPY. And I repay you by taking ages to put this next chapter up. :D aren't I nice? But in truth I've never been happy with this chapter, so I decided to re-write it.**

**Jerry: Insert random comment here. Wow I am smart.**

**Me: Jerry, Y U so depressing today?**

**Jerry: BECAUSE I CAN BE AND NO-ONE CAN STOP MEEEEEEEEE**

**Me: *knocks out with random pole* Stopped. :D**

* * *

Chapter 3

Him

* * *

Egnazol yawned and her arms itched for her to stretch them. She didn't though, because she'd learned quite early on that stretching was not going to help her back at all. She got up, chewed at her newly deposited bread, and waited. The usual routine, she thought, rubbing her face. How she hated it.

It was then that she noticed a movement behind the door. At first she thought it was Kollyn, but then she remembered that he was gone. Another movement revealed a portion of black skin, and though Egnazol couldn't recognise what body-part it was, she knew it was an Enderman. For a moment, she realised that both her and their names started with E. how coincidental.

"Cover your eyes," a new Enderman's voice said. It sounded different from 'Fred', so she assumed it was a different Enderman. With a sigh, she covered her eyes and heard the iron door open.

The Enderman entered the threshold with a whoosh of air. What a strange sound for an Enderman to make, she thought. They made a kind of chiming sound when they teleported, and made a burble every now and then, but their feet where silent. She carefully manoeuvred her hands so she could see part of the Enderman's torso. For a moment, she couldn't make heads or tails of it- then she realised, with a shock, that upon the Enderman's back grew two, huge, bat-like wings, scaled in the same black colour as the rest of the Enderman.

The Enderman spoke; "**Hello human. Could you please turn around and take off your bandage so I can take a look at your wounds**?"

How polite, Egnazol thought, and because she had a feeling it would end badly if she refused, she complied and showed the winged Enderman her back. There was silence for a moment, as the Enderman examined the oddly coloured wounds.

"So, what's with the wings?" she asked, having had enough of silence and willing to have a conversation with anyone, even a weird Enderman.

"**Ah, so you saw them**," the Enderman said, not sounding particularly surprised, "T**hey signify that I am, as you would call it, the **_**deputy**_** of our master, and in charge of this operation**."

"So how did you get them?" Egnazol asked, curious.

"**Our master bestowed me with them when I was just an endling. I have been trying to repay my debt to her for them ever since.**" The 'deputy' Enderman said, sounding slightly wistful.

Egnazol was just about to ask who their master was, when the Enderman spoke again

"**Hmm. Well, thank you, Ehg-nar-zol,**" The deputy said as it moved back to the door, mispronouncing her name.

"It's Ig-naz-ol," she corrected it.

"**Egnazol,**" it said again, correctly this time.

Desperate to get one last question answered before it went, she asked it; "What is happening to my back?"

The Enderman chuckled. "**Something that will benefit us all, Egnazol**"

"But _what_?" Egnazol insisted, panicking slightly.

"**The cuts-**" the deputy Enderman was interrupted as a sword slashed at it's side, exposing the purple particles inside it. It shrieked and flapped it's wings, trying to turn and face it's attacker. The sword ripped through some of the membrane on it's wings, and the Enderman, with a howl of pain, teleported away in a burst of purple.

Egnazol stared in disbelief at the man in the doorway, then yelled; "What the fuck man, he was just about to tell me-"

The man marched forwards, and Egnazol realised that it was the same man who had died when she'd been captured. She wondered how he could possible still be alive; but that was instantly answered when he lowered his hood and revealed the two, glowing white eyes shining from his face.

"Huh," she said "So you're Herobrine." She could see why people thought his eyes where so scary - not that they scared her, of course. The pupilless eyes cast light over his pale face and brown hair, which looked oddly ordinary in comparison.

"No, I'm the high priestess. What the nether do you think?" Herobrine snapped.

"I think you're really grumpy." Egnazol said, rolling her eyes.

Herobrine gave her a surprised look, but quickly changed it back into one of annoyance. "Come on," he said "We need to get out of here."

"Wait." Egnazol said as Herobrine made to go back out the door. "Why are you doing this?" She watched him carefully- the rumours painted him as an enemy, but Egnazol was willing to see what he'd do.

"Because I can't afford the Endermen to go through with their plan," Herobrine said impatiently, "and without you they can't finish it. Now _come on_." She decided it was probably a good idea to go with him, since he would get her out and then she could escape and never see any of them again. She'd had enough of this for a lifetime.

Egnazol, rapidly trying to refasten the bandage across her torso without Herobrine noticing, followed the demon-man out into the corridor, limping slightly. She didn't want to show that she was weakened in front of a potential enemy, so whenever she thought he was looking she would correct her limp. She was surprised that he hadn't commented on all the blood on her, but he was probably used to gore, since apparently he killed people and did all these gruesome things.

They walked and limped down the corridor, and Egnazol kept an eye out for Kollyn. She knew it was unlikely he was still alive, but she felt she owed it to him. Herobrine led her down corridor after corridor, and Egnazol felt herself weakening, and the cuts on her back began to reopen, sending waves of blood down her back.

Herobrine must have seen something on her face, because he stopped and looked at her in confusion. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Egnazol snapped, still trying not to show weakness.

Of course, Herobrine instantly became suspicious. "Why've you got blood all over you?"

"Oh, he notices now." Egnazol mumbled to herself, then said angrily, "Keep walking, zombie brain."

"but the-"

"MOVE!" she yelled, shoving him forwards. Her voice echoed down the hall, and she froze as she heard a burble around the corner.

Then, slowly, a crowd of Endermen revealed themselves. Egnazol knew there was no point in avoiding looking at their eyes- if she closed them, the Endermen would just attack and she would be blind. So, as she stared into the depths of those purple eyes, she knew that this was not going to end well.

The buzzing began, building into a sound that inspired fear into even Egnazol. Then, the Endermen charged. Herobrine tossed her an iron sword that he had produced from no-where, and began to battle with the enraged creatures, slicing and stabbing whenever he could. Egnazol feebly fought with one Enderman, her head swimming from all the energy she had spent. The Enderman managed to whack her into the wall with the side of it's hand, and extended it's claws to slice at her.

Suddenly, Herobrine stabbed it through, and it fell to the ground. There where only about two Endermen left, and they teleported away. Egnazol felt the demon-man's hand wrap around her wrist and yank her forwards, so that they where both running through the corridor. Egnazol's mind wasn't functioning properly any more, otherwise she would've shaken the hand off. Herobrine led them into a large room, where they stopped.

Egnazol didn't know what they where waiting for, but it didn't particularly surprise her when a portal faded into existence in the middle of the room. Herobrine tugged her towards it just as she felt her last strands of conciousness begin to fade.

The Endermen speared in the doorway behind them, and reached for the pair with razor claws. They missed, but only just.

And Egnazol fell into the portal, into another dimension, just as the world faded into darkness.

* * *

**GoDoFbIrD: Actually, that's not such a bad idea. Endermen will have a HUGE role in the future, so I might be able to fit him in somewhere… IT WILL BE. Not that I'm confirming what's happening to Egnazol.**

**Annoyingsister: I know WHO YOU AREEEEEE. So, stop bugging me about the capitol-captal thing because it can be _either_. Also, I clearly stated that the re-spawn after _exploding_, and there was no exploding at the end, only being killed. There. And so you know, In my mind your reviews don't count 'cause you can just walk over to my room and tell me.**

**Dgmnfangirl080: I would be worried if you _didn't _know. They are named, after all.**

**Meli: YESH YOU REVEIWED. And you is interested in her back story, no? Well, it is very interesting, I think. You will have to wait to find out. And, as always, poetic is a second nature to me *dignified face* I'm kidding of course, I just like giving things awesome names. And the title, It burns, comes from lord of the rings, obviously. IT BUURRRNNSSSS USSSSSS, PRESHUSSSS!**

**I've seen people ask the characters questions in other fics, so if anyone wants to ask a character a question, go ahead.**

**Also, Herobrine.  
**


	11. Chapter 4: Stitched together

**Me: WELL here we go. Another chapter!**

**Jerry: It is verrryyy interesting. Read, pretties, read...**

**Me: You are such a creep. But yes, it has a lot of stuff going on. I'll not say any more here, but remember to review!**

**EDIT: Changed the end bit around, expanded, made better. More herobrine, and more annoyance.**

* * *

Chapter 4

Stitched together

* * *

Egnazol watched the colours swim in front of her eyes. That one looks like a face, she thought, but all twisty and swirly. And that one does too! And that one! It's like there's a bunch of people looking at me. I don't like it. No, go away, I don't like you staring at me. I'm not mad, I'm just a little... well, mad. But that doesn't give any of you an excuse. The people-swirls where a little less swirly now and little more like people.

"Go away." she grumbled. She heard laughter, and frowned.

"She's a tough one, I'll give you that," a voice whispered.

"Told you," another replied.

"I still can't believe you've done this," an angrier voice said. "You're _using _her, Herobrine."

"Of course I am. But she'd do the same to me, wouldn't you?" Egnazol felt something poke her.

So Herobrine was there. Whatdayaknow. She went for the first thing that came to mind; "You suck, Herobrine. Go die in a hole."

She closed her eyes to the hysterical laughter around her, and the muttering. What were they talking about now? Had she passed out for a moment?

"I'm taking her back. She can get medical assistance in shadow-mine," Herobrine's voice was saying.

"She might die! Have you seen the blood?"

"Just because you developers are too afraid of physical harm to take off god mode, doesn't mean the rest of us are."

Again, Egnazol opened her eyes and looked at the swirls curiously. What was that about the developers? And now she noticed that the swirls had changed slightly. The colours of blue and purple where more common, and she could see hardly any yellow or red at all.

"Oh my- Her eyes!" one said loudly. Egnazol winced at the volume.

"Crap. That's it, I'm taking her back _right now_," Herobrine said. Egnazol felt his arms under her knees and neck, lifting her off the ground.

She hated being carried around like a child. "Cut it out," she said, squirming.

"Unless you want me to knock you insensible, stay still," Herobrine snapped. "Despite you being ridiculously light, it's not easy to lug you around."

Egnazol snorted and closed her eyes again. She must've fallen unconscious a moment later, because she didn't hear anything else for a long time.

* * *

Egnazol's world rocked back and forth like a boat on a stormy sea. Waves of pain crashed over her, her skin aching like it was on fire. She felt sharp pains in her back, and the feeling of her skin being pulled together. She whimpered in pain, and screwed her eyes shut. She heard whispering and clicking by her ear, and the sound of a door slamming made her flinch, causing more pain in her back. There was a muffled swear word.

Something was shoved in front of her nose, and she breathed in something delicious smelling. Like a herb, spicy and exotic, but still... quite pleasing...

The world faded again, and the spiders that had been stitching her back together resumed their work.

* * *

With great reluctance, Egnazol blinked her eyes open. The room was dark, lit only by several Redstone torches glowing from alcoves in the stone wall. Egnazol was quite glad, though because she had a pounding headache and it certainly wouldn't have been helped by bright light. All she really wanted to do now was turn over and fall back to sleep.

This was the point in which she wondered why on earth she was in a bed, and why she was shirtless. She frowned at the red blanket covering her, and quickly sat up, looking around the room. The movement was awkward, as her torso felt like it had a rubber glove over it, senseless and numb. She gave it a poke and frowned when she didn't feel it. She then passed a hand over her back, checking for any abnormality, and found strange, hard lumps trailing across her back. It took her a moment to realize that they were the gashes that had once bled profusely, but were now carefully stitched together with thick string.

Wondering how the hell her back had ended up this way, she looked around the room. It was fairly simple, with smooth stone walls and a slab table with matching stools on the opposite side of the room to the bed. There was a chest beside the bed, which Egnazol quickly checked; there was a shirt, thankfully, but no weapons or tools.

Slipping the shirt over her head, she clumsily stood up. Her legs felt wobbly, though she still had feeing in them, and she almost fell down again. She tried to make her way to the wooden door, but had to stop and use the table for support, already tired. She snarled at herself, hating the weakness that she couldn't help.

There was quiet knock at the door, which slowly creaked open as someone stepped inside. To Egnazol's shock and horror, it was a zombie. She clenched her hands into fists, ready to attack, but the zombie just appeared surprised to see her there.

Then it did something Egnazol thought impossible, and spoke; "Egnazol?"

Egnazol gaped at it. The zombie had just spoken. It was like seeing a pig grow wings and fly to the Aether. It was ludicrous.

The zombie clumsily turned and headed back out the door. "Be back in moment. Get master," it said as it did, and then disappeared, leaving Egnazol in a state of complete and utter confusion.

* * *

The zombie quickly made her way up several flights of stair and quietly knocked at a door. The door opened, and the zombie found herself face-to-face with her master's glowing eyes.

Herobrine felt a small surge of satisfaction as the zombie cringed and stuttered with fear. He listened to it emotionlessly as it told him that Egnazol was awake and active, and then dismissed it carelessly.

No-one would know from his actions that he was actually impatient to get down the Crafter's room. He needed to talk to her before she tried anything, to get her to ally herself with him. He didn't think it would be too difficult- the simple idea of someone refusing a deal from Herobrine was absurd.

Her quickly made his way down the stairs until he reached the correct room, and then calmly strode in through the door. To his surprise, Egnazol was sitting on one of the stools, looking as if this entire situation was something that happened every other day. She appeared to be focused on poking and pinching herself, but glanced up as he entered, before going back to whatever she was doing.

Herobrine was off-put, used to having people give him their un-divided attention. He gracefully took the stool on the other side of the table, carefully studying the Minecraftian before him. She was, as he had noticed before, quite small, but her arms were well-muscled from her life of living wild. Her posture on the stool was casual, but there was tension in her movement that spoke of wariness. Herobrine smirked at this, remembering that some people tried to disguise their fear by ignoring him. Egnazol was the same, surely.

His assumption where crushed when Egnazol looked up again and snapped, "Did you_ want_ something?"

Herobrine wondered at her strange way of displaying fear. "Perhaps," he said mysteriously, enjoying himself all the same.

Egnazol finally gave him her full attention, straightening and crossing her arms, her expression emotionless. It was a mask, Herobrine saw, hiding another emotion underneath, but well made. She seemed content to wait for him to explain, even though Herobrine hadn't said he was going to. He felt slightly uneasy about this.

"I would like to offer you a deal," he said, as though it was him who had pushed the topic.

"I tend to avoid deals," Egnazol said with the same coldness, "they have a habit of backfiring on me."

Herobrine hummed in agreement, imagining that she would have this problem- who would honour a deal with her when she had a hundred emeralds on her head? More profitable to betray her and turn her in, of course. "Well, I can't guarantee everything," He said, though obviously he had no need for emeralds.

A smile crept onto Egnazol's face, and even Herobrine had to admit it was creepy. "I didn't expect you to."

Herobrine looked at her intently. He had thought that her hidden emotion was fear, and this coldness was a front- but now he was beginning to suspect that it was something else. Why wasn't she afraid? Did she know something?

Egnazol, unexpectedly, spoke again. "You know, I can already guess what your deal is going to be," she said mockingly, leaning back on her stool.

Herobrine, slightly angry at her lack of fear, snorted derisively "Do you now?"

"Sure. You're going to ask me to stay here in return for revenge against the Endermen"

Herobrine paused. This hadn't been exactly what he'd been going to say, but it was uncomfortably close. He decided to pretend to go along with it, as Egnazol's idea was actually more beneficial to him.

"Well, assuming that you're right, would you be interested in such an agreement?" Herobrine said, watching Egnazol with interest.

The crafter looked like she was considering the offer, but Herobrine suspected she had already made up her mind and was only playing with him. The idea made his anger flare up again- who was she to mock with the most evil creature Minecraftia had ever known?

Egnazol eventually answered slowly, "Would that include you telling me everything about the Endermen and their doings?"

"Fine," Herobrine snapped, then realized he was losing his composure and took a deep breath. This Minecraftian was getting on his nerves, for sure.

Egnazol grinned toothily at him. "Alright then. Deal," She said.

Herobrine glared at her for a moment, hating how she just took what she wanted without a care for normality. This had to be the stupidest, most obstinate Minecraftian he'd ever had the misfortune to deal with.

* * *

Egnazol stared at the creeper.

The creeper stared back.

Egnazol was not sure if she was comfortable being in the same room as a time-bomb on legs.

The creeper was not sure if he was comfortable being in the same room as a psychotic murderer.

"Oh, for goodness sake," Herobrine snapped, marching over to the wary pair and shoving the creeper violently towards the crafter. He was quite satisfied when Egnazol jumped away fearfully before it got too close, but then realized that she was more afraid of a creeper than she was of him. Damn it.

Egnazol was standing just behind one of the stools of the table, clearly wanting something between her and the creeper. The creeper was looking just as edgy.

"Masssster, I don't think that-" the creeper tried to say, probably trying to find an excuse to get out of here.

Herobrine grunted. "I don't care what you think. Just do as I say," he turned to Egnazol and said, "Are you going to accept that night-creatures aren't mindless animals yet?"

Egnazol snarled at him, anger shining in her eyes. "Well, I'm sorry if I'm biased after a life-time of being attacked randomly by them."

"We only attack assss randomly as Minecraftianssss do," the creeper hissed, leaping to his fellow mob's defence.

This seemed to give Egnazol pause. "You have a point," she admitted, "But I'm pretty sure Minecraftians would rather mind their own business most of the time."

"So would mobssss, but if a Minecraftian ssssees us getting clossssse, they attack us without reassssson. Have you ever conssssssidered that we jussssst want to walk freely?"

"Monsters attack when we're not trying anything."

"So do Minecraftianssssss."

Egnazol let out a sigh and sat down on the stool with a bump. She looked at the creeper with annoyance and put her hands in the air, "Okay! I'll admit that they aren't brainless," she exclaimed, surrendering. Herobrine was about to give himself a mental pat on the back when the crafter added; "Though I wasn't really ever doubting their intelligence. I mean, last time I checked, you have to have a brain to talk."

"Argh," Herobrine said, facepalming, "You are absolutely insufferable."

"I know," Egnazol said with a smile, shrugging as if the fact couldn't be helped.

The creeper had edged away now, still not feeling at ease in this situation. Egnazol noticed the movement and a wide, mischievous grin spread across her face.

"I don't suppose a _hug_ would make you feel better?" she said, snickering slightly.

The creeper and Herobrine stared at the murderer in disbelief. What the nether was she banging on about?

Egnazol saw their expressions and laughed outright as she explained. "There's a theory, in Minecraftia, about creepers. Apparently all the want is a hug, but when they come up to you they remember that they don't have arms and blow up in frustration."

"How sssstrange," the Creeper said, giving a hissing laugh, "that Minecraftiansssss would think something ssssso… sweet of us. I assumed they saw ussss as mutated freakssssss."

"Well, Minecraftians like to kill nice things. They're a sick, gruesome race at heart." Egnazol said easily, and for a moment Herobrine was surprised she spoke out against her own race, since she was pretty much calling herself a sickening person- and then he remembered that of course she was a sickening person.

"Well, I'm going to have to turn down your offer, crafter," the creeper said, "Because the Minecraftians got one thing right- we _don't_ have arms."

The creeper looked up at Herobrine expectantly, clearly thinking that its job was finished. Herobrine let it go, though not without a look that would leave it quivering in its crunchy skin for days. He turned this look on Egnazol, whose only reaction was to raise an eyebrow.

That idiotic, fearless crafter. There had to be something wrong with her, Herobrine told himself.

* * *

Egnazol was not unaware that Herobrine was infuriated by her. She could see it in his glowing eyes, the way they brightened with anger when she didn't even bat an eye at him. She knew she should treat him with respect; she'd felt his inhuman strength in the stronghold, so she knew she was no match for him in that aspect. But she'd never treated anyone with respect, and she saw no reason to start now.

But the demon-man wasn't what was worrying her at the moment. When she'd had the free time (Herobrine had been irritatingly instant on making sure she wouldn't slaughter any mob that came near), she made herself a few pieces of glass and used them to look at the stitches on her back.

It was rather disturbing, not least because the string used was clearly webbing made by spiders, but mostly because the purple colouration that Egnazol and Kollyn had discovered in the stronghold was _still there_. Now it gave a tingling sensation every now and then, only noticeable now the numbness had worn off. Egnazol assumed they had given her some kind of drug that had numbed the feeling.

She didn't know what the Endermen had done, but she knew that it couldn't be good. But there was nothing she could do but wait and see what happened.

* * *

**Me: Wow! What a lot of questions! They were both for Herobrine, though... how coincidental ;D**

**GoDoFbIrD : **Question for Herobrine: why didn't u just use ur "godly powers" to teleport out of there? And is your original hair color blonde cause u seem to act like it in the many fanfic that I have read?

**Herobrine: When I was banished from the Aether by my idiot brother and his minions, they took away a lot of my rightful powers. Sure, I can use runes of the Aether to get around, but someone has to draw a rune on the other end, making it unreliable at best. And as for my hair colour, of course it is brown. That's what it is in the original skin, after all. Or are you referring to some adaptations of me acting dumb? Because I can see that. Honestly, I always seem to be getting myself killed. It's ridiculous- I can't die.**

**Andonexus KotD: Q**uestion for Herobrine: What is your favourite food?

**Herobrine: Frankly, I don't need to eat, and I never have, but I do enjoy a biscuit (or as some would call it, cookie) every now and then. My brother once told me of something called ice cream- it doesn't exist here, but I have the feeling I would enjoy it.**


	12. Chapter 5: Human amongst the monsters

**Me: HERE, HAVE THIS NICE FAT CHAPTER. IT'S GOOD FOR YOUR KIDNEYS.**

**Jerry: You're insane, Loz! SOMEONE TIE HER DOWN.**

***van appears***

**Me: NUUU THEY'VE FOUND MEEEEEEE**

**Jerry: YESH I HAVE FINALLY-wait that van is red...**

***van drives right past***

**Me: Well wasn't that dramatic. REMEMBER PEOPLE, REVIEW OR I SEND JERRY AFTER YOUUU.**

* * *

Chapter 5

human amongst the monsters.

* * *

"So, what's your name?" Egnazol slurred, leaning on the table.

The creeper opposite stared at her, speechless. The human was clearly not in her right mind- that is, if you could call Egnazol's normal state 'in her right mind'.

Herobrine sighed from where he lent on the wall at the other side of the room. "Just ignore her, Pistachio. They had to give her a massive dose so she wouldn't hurt herself," he said to the creeper, looking annoyed by this whole situation.

Egnazol huffed. "I'm just tryin' to have a conversation with this nice copper- I mean, creeper. Copper isn't green, right?" she asked no-one in particular, sitting up straight and looking confused, then stated; "I think someone's drugged me."

The creeper and his master rolled their eyes in unison. "I'm pretty sure we've already confirmed that," the creeper hissed.

"Oh," Egnazol said, eyes drooping, "I think... I'm about to..." then she slumped onto the table, asleep.

Herobrine sighed and marched over, picking her up under her shoulders and dragging her back onto the bed. "Sorry about that, Pistachio, you just came at the wrong time," he said, absent-mindedly moving Egnazol around so she looked more comfortable.

"That's okay," Pistachio said. "I'll explain to my father, but I'm sure he won't mind if I just try again later."

Herobrine nodded and took Egnazol's chair. "It was a good idea- you'll certainly benefit from getting to know a Minecraftian."

"I suppose." Pistachio agreed, nodding his head slightly. "But she's not exactly... your average Minecraftian."

"True, but often the strangest ones show the strongest qualities of their race. For example, Minecraftians are ruthless and often blood-thirsty; Egnazol has a more extreme amount of this trait."

Pistachio blinked, remembering a particularly strange creeper that refused to talk and hid from the other night-creatures all the time. Creepers where normally quiet and sneaky, and the strange creeper was only on the extreme side of these traits. Fascinating.

The creeper prince looked over at his master, who seemed deep in thought. He decided to ask something that had been on his mind since he'd entered the room.

"Lord Herobrine, do you mind if I ask what you are planning to use her for?"

Herobrine hummed, and said; "It's really rather complicated, and a lot of it needs more thinking on before it could work." the demon-man rubbed the side of his face as he spoke, appearing agitated, "The basic idea is that we need her in order to create the portal- yes, I know that's what we're trying to avoid, but the only true way to finish this is to go after their master, and we can only do that by going into 'The End'."

The creeper frowned, and was just about to ask how he was sure Egnazol would co-operate, when there was suddenly a violent rustle and the pair who were sitting at the table turned to see Egnazol, sitting bolt upright where she'd been asleep a few moments before. For a moment, Pistachio thought she'd heard what they'd been talking about, but then he realised she wasn't looking at them- she was just staring blankly at the wall in front of her.

"Egnazol?" Herobrine said cautiously, clearly worried that she'd heard them.

There was no reaction. She just kept staring at the wall.

Herobrine stood up and walked over to stand beside the bed. "Egnazol, go back to sleep." he instructed the strange girl.

Egnazol's lips moved slightly, as though she was mumbling something. Her eyes didn't move.

"She's still asleep," Pistachio realised with relief. Even if Egnazol was going along with the plan, it was best if she didn't hear it yet.

Herobrine nodded, waving his hand in front of her eyes. "I think she must be dreaming..." he said, and carefully pushed Egnazol back into a lying position. Egnazol didn't protest. For a moment, however, Pistachio could have sworn he'd seen a gleam of purple in her eyes.

* * *

Egnazol never remembered the dream she'd had that day, but it didn't bother her particularly. It had been days since Egnazol had first come to shadow-mine, and, with the blessing of the spiders, she was now allowed to move around the room freely, as long as she didn't partake in any strenuous activities.

It had been made abundantly clear to her that night-creatures were _not _the stupid animals she'd thought they were. Not including the various lectures from Herobrine, the spider empress, and a young creeper, it was hard not to notice the language that the monsters spoke to each other with, or the intelligent way they acted here. If they'd looked like humans, Egnazol would've had trouble telling this place apart from any human fortress.

She had met several mobs, including the Zombie boss, the Spider empress, and the Supreme slime. She avoided them for the most part, because they seemed to be eternally busy. But there came a day when a zombie came knocking at the door of room 168.

It had a note, obviously written by another mob because this one could not speak Minecraftian, which politely asked if she would like to come down to another room to show the zombies her crafting abilities. It was signed by the zombie boss, so she knew it was fairly safe.

She didn't think to tell anyone where she was going- she'd never needed to, before.

* * *

Egnazol smiled at the crowd of zombies around her. They watched eagerly as she spread out her hands, and a moment later, a cake appeared in them.

The zombies howled in excitement, stomping their feet and clapping randomly.

Egnazol laughed and placed the cake on a table in front of her, where it quickly got ravaged by the undead. She felt a tap on her arm, and turned to face a zombie with an usually large amount of hair.

It said something in monster speak, and Egnazol frowned, trying to recognise the words. "Kill... Minecraftians? Sorry bud, I'm no good at monster-speak," she told it with a sigh.

The zombie grumbled something, held up one of it's remaining three fingers, and marched off through the crowd. Egnazol waited, crafting a cookie for herself absently.

The zombie came back with a familiar creeper trailing behind him. Egnazol knew him by name; he was Pistachio, the Creeper Prince. He'd taken to hanging around Egnazol and asking her questions about Minecraftians, apparently under the instruction of his father.

"Got hooked in as a translator, Pistachio?" Egnazol said, slightly surprised that he was here. They were in the zombie part of the fortress, so it was uncommon for other monsters to come through; and she hadn't told anyone where she was going, either.

Pistachio sighed, his eternally sad-looking face mournful. "I was just passing on my way back from meeting with the zombie boss, and this guy snatched me from the corridor."

Egnazol laughed, watching the zombie poke Pistachio impatiently, clearly not happy with the fact he couldn't understand them. They spoke in monster-speak for a moment.

"He wants to know how many you've killed," Pistachio said.

Egnazol frowned and grimaced at the same time, resulting in a particularly pained expression. "How many night-creatures? Dunno. Hundreds, I suppose," it was slightly awkward talking about killing their fellow mobs, but Egnazol hadn't known they were sentient at the time, so she disclaimed responsibility.

Pistachio shook his head. "No, how many _Minecraftians_."

The pained expression came back, and Egnazol counted the bodies up. She tried not to think too much over the first few, but quickly came to a conclusion. "Directly, about five," she said. She'd probably killed more through leaving them at the mercy of the night-creatures, or setting their villages on fire, but she didn't really count those. A lot of people survived those sorts of things, anyway.

The Creeper Prince relayed this number, and the zombie stared at her in awe. It shouted something in monster-speak, and suddenly there was a roar of cheers and mangled hands clapping her on the back.

"Is five-" _thud_, went a hand on her shoulder, "-Minecraftians a lot to them?" Egnazol asked through the cheers.

"Most of them have only killed one, if any," Pistachio replied, shaking his head in despair at the zombies antics. "There's a higher rate of kills in creepers, since we explode before we can be killed."

Egnazol smiled. What an interesting concept; the thing that had tagged her as evil in Minecraftia was something that was admired here. If she wanted, she could've fitted in quite well in shadow-mine- but then, she fitted into Minecraftia too, before all this had started.

There was a bang, and the zombies in the room became silent instantly, fear clear on their faces. They moved obediently to allow the tall, white-eyed man to storm towards Egnazol. Pistachio hid behind the table.

Egnazol looked up at Herobrine's furious face calmly, and told herself that there wasn't anything he could do to her.

Herobrine looked around at the zombies, and said coldly. "Get back to your homes, and never try anything like this again," his eyes burnt brighter than Egnazol had ever seen before, probably due to his anger.

The zombies filed out, and Pistachio crawled with them, clearly trying to avoid detection. Luckily, Herobrine looked too angry to notice the Creeper prince. When all the monsters had gone, Herobrine turned back to Egnazol.

Egnazol laughed nervously. "Ah ha ha... So, how's your day been?"

Herobrine looked just about ready to punch her in the face. "I can't believe you! You just wander off without telling a single soul where your going! Those damned Endermen could have had you, for all we knew!" he said loudly, not quite shouting. "Can you imagine if this happens again and you really were captured? We'd never be able to tell, because you'd probably just wandered off again!"

Egnazol glared back at him sourly. "I do what I want, and I don't need anyone's permission."

Herobrine jabbed a finger at her. "I don't think you realise how important you are in this. If the Endermen get you again, it's game over!"

"Pfft," Egnazol snorted, "you make it sound like you care about me."

This made Herobrine hesitate, then glare even more. "The only thing I care about is stopping this world being desecrated."

"That's not what the rest of the world thinks. They're all scared shitless of you."

"Well, they must be smarter than you, then!"

"You keep thinking that."

They glared at each other for a moment, blue eyes against glowing white ones. Egnazol blinked first, rolling her eyes, and walked around the angry developer.

"Fine. Next time I'll tell someone where I'm going, just to satisfy your Lordship," she made a mock bow in the door way, then added; "But don't ever, ever think that I'm going to do as you say." She left the room.

Herobrine sighed, and closed his eyes, left in an empty room full of cake crumbs. Why didn't she just fear him? It would be much simpler then. But Egnazol had been, apart from his brother, the only one who had ever looked at him without fear, or wanting to cut off his head. And Herobrine had no idea what to do about it.

* * *

**Me: hmm. Just some stuff about shadow-mine, really, but all necessary for setting the stage. **

**Jerry: I love pistachios. OM NOM NOM.**

**Me: PISTACHIO INVASION**

**Jerry: EEEEEEE**

* * *

**GoDoFbIrD: What? Grey? Did you mean great? I'll assume so, so thankyou :3**


	13. Chapter 6: Unstoppable

**Me: Okay guys, before you read this, I'M SORRY. I KNOW THIS IS EVIL. I JUST COULDN'T HELP MYSELF.**

**Jerry: You are a terrible person, Loz. DIE**

**Me: *dies* … but I'm immortal! DAMMIT.**

* * *

Chapter 6

Unstoppable.

* * *

Herobrine watched without interest as Egnazol talked to pistachio and his friends. She was in the midst of telling the creepers of a particularly impressive exploit she'd pulled, which had involved a large fire, a huge patrol of government troops, a golden apple, and some technical Redstone wiring.

"... And then, BOOM!" Egnazol said, flinging her arms in the air. "The entire thing set on fire, so the troops had to run out without any of their stuff, and half of them got serious burns too."

"Wow!" said one of the creepers, "so you got all their stuff in the end?"

"Tha's right," Egnazol grinned at the impressed creepers. The green creatures always knew the worth of a good explosion.

There was a knock a the door, and a slime peeked in, rapidly saying something in monster-speak. Egnazol picked out the words 'king', 'creeper' and 'work'. Being in a place where almost everyone spoke a different language had caused Egnazol to vaguely learn some monster-speak, too.

The creepers scrambled towards the door, and pistachio said quickly as he left; "Sorry, Egnazol, my father needs us."

Egnazol shrugged and waved it off, leaning back in her chair. Herobrine, still present, smirked as he sat in another chair opposite her.

"What happened to being a loner?" he asked, slightly curious as to her answer.

Egnazol mock glared at him. "I'm allowed to brag every now and then- It's no big secret that I like to spread tales that scare the shit out of Minecraftians."

"_I_ only need to step outside for tales to start spreading about _me,_" Herobrine said.

Egnazol pretended to gasp in disbelief. "Ouch," she said.

Herobrine snorted at her blatant disregard of the fear he inspired in others. He supposed he'd gotten used to it over the last few days. Egnazol was now looking at him sceptically, and Herobrine frowned back at her.

"You know," Egnazol said, "you don't have to keep following me around. It's not as though I'm completely defenceless anymore." It was true- the stitches on her back were now almost fully healed, so she could fight without to much damage.

Herobrine hesitated. He didn't like to leave her unsupervised after the incident with the zombies, and there weren't many mobs he trusted to keep an eye on her. It hadn't actually escaped his attention that Pistachio had been at the zombie party, but he'd kept quiet about it, since he guessed that the creeper prince hadn't been there willingly. And sometimes he just came down here because he enjoyed her company, because it was so different from the fearing monsters that he had to speak to normally.

"I don't trust you," Herobrine said instead, smiling slightly.

Egnazol grinned toothily back. "Good," she said, looking quite pleased with herself.

And Herobrine didn't trust her, honestly. He knew that she would stab him in the back the moment it suited her, and was just glad that she'd decided to stay in shadow-mine without complaint for the moment. If she'd tried to get out, things would have gotten very ugly. He knew that he needed to get her to agree with his plan to kill the Endermen's master soon, but he couldn't quite bring himself to do it. He really didn't want her anywhere near the Endermen; maybe another day, he said, when her back has healed a little more.

* * *

Herobrine had left a little while after that, as though to prove he could leave her to her own devices. Egnazol sat on her bed, thinking.

_Come back._

_Return._

The commands flew through Egnazol's mind. She didn't know where they were coming from.

_Who are you?_

_I will control you._

_Who are you?_

_I am your master AND YOU WILL DO AS I SAY._

_No._ Egnazol's head hurt. _no._

_Walk._

_Stand._

_Do as I command._

Egnazol opened her eyes when she felt her leg twitch of it's own accord. She stared in confusion for a moment, wondering when she'd been covered in purple ink, and then she realised that it wasn't her leg that was purple, but the entire room.

"Oh no."

The spider that had been looking after her looked up. "What's the matter?"

She looked at it, and the spider froze. Egnazol knew, without a doubt, what it was staring at. Her eyes had gone purple again.

The spider ran out the door, screeching. It knew that it was out of it's depth alone- it needed help. Egnazol needed help.

_Move._

_Stand up._

Egnazol stood up.

* * *

Herobrine knew he'd been careless about leaving a spider in charge of her. He wouldn't have done so normally, but he'd felt a change in the coding, and knew that he had visitors, as unwelcome as they might be. He now faced two developers across his desk, feeling annoyed by their impromptu visit.

"Herobrine," Jeb sighed, "you've got to tell me what's going on."

"Just because Notch told you to, it doesn't mean that I have to tell you," Herobrine told him stubbornly. "If Notch wants to know, he'll have to come here himself."

At this point the other developer, Dinnerbone, spoke. "You know he's not going to do that."

"Sucks to be him, then," Herobrine said nonchalantly.

The Aetherians looked at each other, as though trying to see if the other had any ideas. By the looks of it, neither of them did, but they weren't about to give up yet.

"So, Herobrine," Dinnerbone said, "how's that girl of yours going then?"

"Who, Egnazol?" Herobrine said, frowning. "She's fine, her back has pretty much healed over now. Why?"

A malicious grin had now slid across both Jeb and Dinnerbone's faces. Herobrine felt rather disturbed, and wondered what was coming. Whatever it was, it wasn't going to be pleasant.

"Well, you see, before you got here, we had a nice conversation with that creeper you got guarding the portal." Jeb said.

Dinnerbone jumped in. "Among other things, it mentioned that you had been spending an _awful _lot of time with her. Almost never left her alone, it said."

Herobrine stared at the pair. Were they really implying what he though they were implying?

"So, we couldn't help but wonder..."

"Wait," Herobrine said, halting the accusations, "just a few days ago you were appalled at the thought that I was using her, and now you are accusing me of... of..."

Dinnerbone and Jeb looked delighted that the demon-man had managed to pick up on what they were implying. "Well, do you deny it?"

"Of course! What a sick thing to say, honestly," Herobrine muttered to himself.

Jeb and Dinnerbone nodded at each other knowingly. "Hm. Denial."

"Is a river in Egypt," Herobrine sighed, using a phrase he'd learnt from Notch a long time ago. Using it only made him more annoyed, and he wanted the pair to go away before this escalated anymore. "look, if you two are going to keep accusing me of things that-"

"Do you deny that she's attractive?" Dinnerbone asked suddenly, smirking.

"What? No, I honestly hadn't even thought about it." Herobrine stuttered, his eyes steadily becoming more and more bright the angrier he became with the pair of developers in front of him.

"You're not going to get far with that, hero. Do you deny that her personality is a lot like yours?"

How the nether did that come into this? "well- look, I just don't-"

"Do you deny that you like to spend time with her?"

They weren't even listening to him anymore! "There's a difference between enjoying someone's company and _that_."

"I know there is." Dinnerbone grinned.

Herobrine snarled angrily, and stood up, trying to use the movement as an outlet for his anger. Suffice to say that he was really angry now, and standing up wasn't going to cut it. These two needed to get out before he got really mad. "Forget it. I _do not _like her in that way, okay? I am using her, and the only reason I stay near her is so she doesn't disappear."

"Wait, you're still going to use her, even-"

"Look, just get out." Herobrine said. He was sick and tired of these petty developers. he just wanted them to go away. He didn't even like them!

"You still haven't told us-"

"GET THE NETHER OUT OF MY FORTRESS BEFORE I TELEPORT YOU OUT!"

Herobrine's eyes were almost blinding now. How dare these people come into his sanctuary, demand to know his plans, and accuse him of things he would never do. He _hated _the developers.

Jeb and Dinnerbone scrambled backwards out of their chairs, knowing full well that Herobrine would and could do as he threatened, and if he did, it would end badly for both of them. Fear was clear on both their faces. They made towards the door that would take them to the portal, but before they could take a step, a slime crashed through another door that led in through the corridor.

"Master! The Endermen are coming for Egnazol!"

* * *

Egnazol couldn't move, or breath, or blink, or walk out the door. Despite this, her body did it anyway, against her will and control. She could still think, and she was still herself- but she wasn't in control. Her vision was in blues and purples and the shadows leapt out at her like a million bats flapping their wings.

Her feet silently stepped down the stairs, to a destination unknown.

Inside her thoughts, Egnazol writhed and panicked, pushing to get back in control of her body. She had to stop. She had to stop.

She knew, subconsciously, what was going on. The purple colouring that had come with the gashes across her back had completed it's objective, and she now knew what that objective was; to gain control; to get her to succumb to the will of the Endermen; to enslave the only free crafter.

She hated it, she wanted out, she wanted to be free, she didn't like it, she couldn't breath- her mind was a whirl of anger and pain now. There were no truly logical thoughts anymore- she'd been a bit crazy before, but now she was going downright _insane_.

Her body walked into a huge, dark hall which looked like it had been unused for a very long time. Egnazol could see the walls quite well, despite the darkness of the room, but she didn't think much on it. She could see the Enderman clearly, waiting for her, it's hand extended for her to take and teleport her away-

"EGNAZOL!"

She whipped around at the sound of Herobrine's voice. She wasn't sure if it was the thing controlling her or maybe if she'd managed to regain some control for a second, but she stared at the glowing eyes none the less.

His hand was extended, palm facing straight towards her, a glimmer of light glowing in front of it- she knew he was preparing some sort of coding attack on her. He was probably planning to completely despawn her. She didn't mind- she would've done the same, and it was a small price to pay for stopping the Endermen.

The thing controlling her had other ideas. Her eyes widened of their own accord, and her eyebrows changed into a pleading look. Egnazol thoroughly put off, hating the thought of her face looking like that.

To her surprise, Herobrine reacted to the expression, lowering his hand slightly and blinking a few times. Egnazol was annoyed- why didn't he just hurry up and kill her? Then, she felt a hand on her shoulder, long and thin and clawed. White (or that was what they looked like in her strange purple-vision) sparks crowded around, blocking her sight until all she could see was that cursed whiteness.

Then, before she could blink, it faded, revealing a crowd of Endermen and the stone-brick walls of the stronghold she despised so much.

She was back, and this time, more than ever, she was helpless. Enslaved, by her own body, to the will of the Endermen, and their plans.

Egnazol knew it was over.

* * *

**Me: The more reviews I get, the quicker the next chapter'll be out :3**

* * *

**Andonexus KotD : **Do you have any jokes about a chicken crossing the road?

**Herobrine: You'd be better off asking Jerry or someone else that, but I'll give it a shot. Why'd the chicken cross the road? Because it had a death wish, obviously. You don't just wander onto roads unless you're _trying_ to get yourself killed.**

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**Me: On that note, ta ta, pretties!**


	14. Chapter 7: Portal

**Me: This bit was near impossible to write, so I'ma just shove this bit online and the next bit will be more interesting.**

**Jerry: AND MORE REVIEWS. REVIIIEEEEEWWWSSSSSS *drools***

**Me: *edges away***

* * *

Chapter 7

Portal

* * *

A pale frame floating above a pit of lava.

A bench covered in pearls and fiery powder.

A crafter bound inside her own body.

The Endermen were so close to completing their plan. They had the wild one under their control, and now all it took was a simple push in the right direction, and at long last they would be able to see their master again.

The crafter stepped towards the table, her hands, thin and pale in the fiery light, picking up a pearl and some powder.

The Endermen held their breath.

The powder meshed with the pearl in a blaze of light, and the first eye of ender appeared in Minecraftia. The key to Minecraftia's downfall. The key to the Endermen's success.

The crafter made another eye, then another, then another, until there were no more left. She stepped back, leaving the eyes on the table.

Her part in this was done. She was no more use to the Endermen, but they ignored her, for there was nothing she could do in her bound state.

Twelve Endermen took one eye each, stepping around the frame in twelve different positions. The frame had twelve slots embedded in it- four on each side. Carefully, in union, the Endermen raised their long, skinny arms, and placed the eyes of ender in the slots of the frame.

Silently, the inside of the frame became black, and deep, deeper than the void itself. The portal was activated.

"Well done. you've opened the portal at last. I was beginning to doubt you ever would."

An Endermen, the one with the huge wings that Egnazol had last seen in the stronghold just before she had escaped, walked up to the portal and bowed. "My apologies, oh great one. We found that the laws of this place were quite different to the worlds we have previously taken, and thus presented some difficulty."

"I am pleased by your perseverance. have you managed to collect any prey yet…?"

"No, not yet. We do have a Minecraftian here that we needed to use to create the portal, if she would please you."

There was a chuckle. "I see. send her through…"

Egnazol felt a hand shove her forwards, and she stumbled, before regaining her balance and walked towards the portal. She stepped right up, and the Enderman whispered in her ear as she approached.

"Think of this as recompense for slicing my side when you escaped." then he pushed her forward, and she went tumbling into the portal.

As she fell, she saw the inside of the portal truly for the first time.

_Oh, notch, _she cried_, it's full of stars!_

* * *

**END OF BOOK 2**

* * *

**Me: *cough*2001reference*cough***

**Jerry: SO MANY REVEIWS :DDDDD**

* * *

**Meli: NEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE **

**Lunaris14: Why thankyou. (Me saying something random: Ducks are like goldfish cheesecake)**

**Dgmnfangirl080: Quick updates FTW. :D**

**GoDoFbIrD: XD**

* * *

**Lunaris14: Question for Egnazol: How does it feel to be enslaved like that with purple eyes, a big gash on your back, and all that other stuff? I know I would hate if the Enderman did that to me.**

**Egnazol: Yeah, trust me, NOT something I'm enjoying currently. If there's one thing I can't go without, its freedom, and it's sending me DOWNRIGHT INSANE.  
dgnmfangirl080: Question to Herobrine: I got some ice cream! Want it? Too bad for you. *eats it***

**Herobrine: Oh, boo hoo. I'm not going to eat anything my brother suggested anyway, so more fool you.**

**dgmnfangirl080: And another question to 'Brine: Hey hey hey hey. Guess what? EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE EEEE**

**Herobrine: Oh not again.**

**Andonexus KotD: Herobrine: Couldn't you have put in say, 50 zombies, 50 skeletons, & 50 spiders (with or without jockeys on their backs), outside of Egnazol's room to have prevented her from being taken by the Enderman?**

**Herobrine: Good point, but that wouldn't have worked either. The thing controlling Egnazol could have easily slipped past them by pretending to be normal- or, failing that, the Endermen could have teleported inside and taken her. I'm pretty sure Egnazol would not have appreciated having an armed guard at all times.**


	15. Chapter 1: The End

**Me: ARG! In a hurry, in a hurry, just thought I'd release this before I leave for a week.  
**

**Jerry: We're going to see apricots and FISH.**

**Me: I love fishing. Anyway, sorry for the long wait, but it's the holidays and it's a combination of free time and lack of minicomputers that have led to the delay. So as recompense, have this SUPER LONG CHAPTER.**

**Jerry: SEEYA LATER, SHIPLORDS!**

* * *

**EDIT: Sorry about all the mistakes guys, I was practically walking out the door as I submitted this. You can blame Applepeel. They're fixed now, tho.  
**

* * *

**BOOK 3**

**EnderDragon**

_They told us that dreams come true. They forgot to mention that nightmares are dreams too._

* * *

Chapter 1

The End

* * *

In the dark, dusty hall, Herobrine stared blankly. Slowly, numbly, he took a step back, into the wall, and slid down it to sit at it's base, sending a small plume of dust into the air. Everything was quiet and loud around him, and the darkness was too bright. He closed his eyes and ears to the world.

It was over.

He didn't understand what had come over him- why hadn't he acted? Why hadn't he stopped them? Why had he let them take her before his very eyes? An image sprang to mind: Egnazol's face, twisted in a pleading expression. Thinking about it now, Herobrine very much doubted it was Egnazol herself who had made that expression, as Egnazol would think of this idea, pleading, as a weakness. And Egnazol never showed weakness consciously.

But that didn't excuse the fact that somehow, that expression had made him hesitate, and in that hesitation, he had lost the one thing that kept his plans from falling apart. He liked to think of himself as a strategist, but he knew that Notch had always been more about that than him- Herobrine focused on the here and now, leaving the future for others to decide. Maybe he should have been more careful.

But with his plans in tatters, and his mind reeling, he knew that this was it. It was over. The master of The Endermen would come to Minecraftia and wreak havoc, or whatever, killing humans and night-creatures alike. And it was his fault.

Herobrine felt a lump in his throat, and realized with embarrassment that he was close to tears- not that it really mattered any more. The world probably wouldn't live long enough to laugh at him for it.

"Master?"

Of course, Herobrine wouldn't die. He had never been able to- he was, after all, the first creature to have ever been created here, along with Minecraftia itself. Even Notch had entered the world a long time after him, along with the other developers. Sometimes Herobrine wondered if this was a bad thing- sometimes he just wanted to fall asleep and never wake up. But the night-creatures had needed him, so he had moved on, and lived on, through the ages.

"...Master? What happened?"

Herobrine realized with a start that there was a troop of skeletons and zombies around him, and one kneeling down to his level was speaking. He began to translate the the sounds in to words, and figure out what the nether they were talking about.

Herobrine gulped down the lump in his throat, and told them; "They took her." Maybe it was mean to tell the might-creatures that his plans had failed, that the end was nigh, but at the moment he really couldn't care less. It was over, anyway.

But the actual saying it somehow made the reality even more devastating, and as Herobrine looked around at all the night-creatures, his beloved creations, he felt like crying again. It was his fault that this was going to happen. The troop of night-creatures began mumbling among themselves, faces twisted with worry.

"How are we going to get her back, master?" The zombie who had spoken before asked quietly.

Get her back. Herobrine's face twisted into a snarl, and he lurched to his feet, making the poor zombie stumble backwards in surprise. There was no getting back option- he knew, without a doubt, that Egnazol would have crafted the pearls by now. There was no point trying to get her back.

Shaking slightly, Herobrine, without a word to the crowd around him, left the dark hall.

In all likelihood, she was probably dead now.

For some reason, this hurt him almost as much as the destruction of the entire world.

* * *

Egnazol was not dead. This was the first thing she realised when her mind came back into consciousness. However, she was very uncomfortable.

Sharp pebbles were sticking into her back, so she shifted to try and move them away. No such luck. Her fingers spread and found that the entire ground seemed to be covered in pebbles, all round and smooth. How odd.

Slowly, very slowly, she opened her eyes. The sky was blacker than pitch and empty of stars, though there was no cloud cover to hide them. Her vision shifted over to look at to ground beside her, and found that the pebbles where all in vibrant hues from gold to purple, like someone had spewed a rainbow all over the ground. A disgusting thought, but apt all the same.

She tried to sit up, but she still wasn't entirely in control of her body, so she remained motionless. At least now she could move her head slightly and look around.

As she examined the ground around her for anything interesting, there was a noise. Well, not a noise- a vibration. Well, not even that really. It was a bit like a hum, a bored, random hum that one makes when there is really nothing else to do but hum. It shook Egnazol to her bones.

Then there was something that was like a chuckle, and Egnazol raised her eyes to see two pin-pricks of light in the sky above her, a pair of glowing eyes. For a delusional moment Egnazol thought it was Herobrine, but then she realized the eyes were purple. She didn't see the point of avoiding it's gaze- she was screwed either way.

"Egnazol," a voice said.

There were no words to describe just how wrong that voice sounded- one might liken it to being as if the world had suddenly decided to speak, opening it's gaping maw and swallowing thousands as it spoke. Kind of.

"Poor poor Egnazol... why do you lie there, so weak and helpless?"

Weak? Who the heck was calling her weak. Maybe she was indisposed at the moment, but when she got loose she would... and how the nether did it know her name?!

"Because I can read your mind," the voice said, as Egnazol watched the purple eyes slowly glide down from the sky. She couldn't make out the body of whatever it was against the dark sky. "Isn't is obvious? Aren't you Minecraftians supposed to be intelligent?"

Egnazol glared at the eyes. At least Minecraftians weren't assholes. (of course, that was a lie.)

"tsk, tsk. You should know rude words have no meaning to the Endermen."

But it wasn't an Enderman, was it?

"How astute. However, if your words have no affect on Endermen..."

Egnazol watched as a huge, thin, bony, scaled body began to reveal itself as it silently landed on the brilliant pebbles on the ground, voluminous wings extended, with a fearsome face to match the terrible purple eyes. That's about the point Egnazol realized that, standing before her, stood a thin, black, monstrous dragon.

"... you can't expect the EnderDragon to take offence, can you?"

The EnderDragon. Wonderful. How abso-fucking-lutely wonderful. And Egnazol had just practically signed it's release form, in the form of a complete portal.

"That's right. You've failed completely, haven't you? I don't think there's anyone in the history of The End who has failed as much as you," the EnderDragon purred, leaning back gracefully on it's haunches and into a sitting position. It's two glowing eyes portrayed no emotion.

Egnazol wryly thought; well, everything in The End failed miserably be simply coming into existence.

The EnderDragon let out a breathy sigh. "you Minecraftians are so petty. And tiny."

Egnazol scowled. Petty? _Petty_? She was a serial killer, she wasn't petty! (a small part of her mind thought that perhaps some of her murders had been petty.)

To Egnazol's horror, the EnderDragon leant over her, eyes gleaming. She could feel it's soft breath against her shoulder, and, if she had been able to, she would have shuddered. Instead, she settled for glaring at it. The EnderDragon hummed again, rattling Egnazol's bones.

Slowly, surprisingly, Egnazol felt her body relax, and then come back into her control. Wasting no time celebrating this freedom, she jerked her legs back and scrambled away from the EnderDragon's black face. In a few seconds, she had checked her inventory and taken out her sword.

The EnderDragon laughed, and Egnazol reminisced that it looked especially creepy when it's voice conveyed emotion, but at the same time it's face showed none. For a moment, she looked at the EnderDragon's scales, wondering how much health it had, and then back at her now feeble-looking iron sword. This was going to be useless.

Before she even allowed herself to think about it (because that would give the EnderDragon warning), she switched tools to her pick as made a dash to the portal. If she had already failed, the best thing she could do would be to fix her mistake-

The breath left her lungs as she crashed into something solid, and as she coughed in an attempt to regain her lost air, she realised that she was now draped over the EnderDragon's tail. The tail moved, and wrapped itself around her body like a disgusting, slimy snake. She squirmed in it's grasp, but there was no escape, and the pick fell from her hands uselessly.

"Did you really think that just because you where free in your own body, you could do anything more or less to stop me? I allowed you freedom because I like to feel you _squirm,"_

Egnazol stubbornly ignored the creepy squirming comment, and noticed for the first time that her vision had altered greatly now. The pebbles, rather than being vibrant colours, were now dull cream, and the sky was slightly lighter, and the EnderDragon slightly less purple. The purple eyes she'd acquired must have gone too, she realised, and wondered if the entire purple stuff in her back was gone aswell. Or had the EnderDragon just temporarily removed it's influence? Then again, it wasn't like she was going to escape now.

"Correct. The 'influence', as you call it, has been removed. However, the purple colouring will be there for the rest of your life. Not that that's going to last much longer," the EnderDragon said with amusement.

"Whatever," Egnazol mumbled, not realizing that this was the first thing she'd said in The End. The EnderDragon's mental abilities where off-putting. "Why don't you just kill me now, and get it over with?"

"Because that would be much to easy," the EnderDragon said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "I haven't even started my fun yet, and it will take a while for the Endermen to procure a sufficient offering to send me."

Oh great. What next?

The EnderDragon laughed. "Next, we find what makes you _snap_."

With that, the EnderDragon moved it's tail to bring her closer, and leant it's head forward, black toothless mouth gaping with white, razor-sharp teeth gleaming. Egnazol winced away from it, wondering whether the EnderDragon as just going to eat her there and then, despite what it had said.

Then slowly, deliberately, the EnderDragon released a long, heavy breath that enveloped her entire body, filling her nose with a sickly sweet smell. Egnazol's vision blurred, and whatever gasses The EnderDragon breathed filled her lungs heavily. Her mind clouded, and her eyes began to roll back in her head as she lost consciousness once again.

Just as the world disappeared for what was likely the last time, she heard the EnderDragon speak once more.

"Sweet dreams, Egnazol."

* * *

Pistachio scampered up the stairwell, thinking furiously. The mobs downstairs were in panik, insisting that egnazol had been captured by the Endermen once more, and that the end was nigh- normally the creeper prince would pass these off as stupid zombie-rumors (zombies were always predicting the apocalypse but the worrying this was that it was not only zombies who where panicking, but slimes and skeletons and even a few creepers were too.

Pistachio had decided he had to get to the bottom of this, both because of his duty to creeper-kind, and because he felt obligated to make sure his new friend was okay. He knew it was doubtful Egnazol considered him a friend, but he hoped some day she would. He was a hopeful creeper.

He came up to the room where Egnazol stayed, and found it bare and untouched. Not a promising sign, but not conclusive that she had been taken either.

Pistachio paused, thinking, and then exited the room and headed up the next flight of stairs. The master would know. He always knew.

The door to Herobrine's room was ajar, and Pistachio could already see that there where things scattered across the floor- pieces of paper, mostly, looking as if someone had knocked them off the table in a hurry. The light in the room was blinding, with every light turned on (making Pistachio very glad he wasn't allergic to sunlight).

Herobrine himself was standing against the wall, with one hand on a lever, and one hand holding an arrow, looking upset about something. He didn't look up as Pistachio entered, and the creeper wondered whether he was listening at all. After a moment in which Pistachio wondered what to do, Herobrine looked up at him with blinding white eyes.

"M-master..." Pistachio stammered, remembering Herobrine's short temper, and taking note of his already angry disposition "Er. The zombies have been talking... Egnazol-"

"Is gone." The words were unfaltering, but empty. The tone of defeat.

Pistachio felt the air leave his lungs in shock. But- Egnazol! What would the Endermen do to her? It was awful... Pistachio felt it like an ache in his heart. He'd spent a lot of time with the crafter, talking about Minecraftians and their strengths and weaknesses. Pistachio had told her about the night-creature culture too, sometimes. She'd been interested in it, too. But now... he was never going to learn what the Minecraftian legend 'Jack and the beanstalk' was.

"We have to get her back." Pistachio said, his mind made up.

Herobrine's expression darkened, and he strode across the room to stand right in front of the creeper prince. "We cannot get her back. The Endermen have taken her. Don't you understand? That's it. She's gone. It's over. The Endermen will have forced her to make a portal by now. We have no more use for her. They have no more use to her. She's probably dead."

Dead. The words struck Pistachio like a fire charge. He watched in shock as Herobrine marched across the room, anger pronounced in every step, and began angrily wrenching arrows from a dispenser in the wall. One nicked his hand, but no blood leaked from the cut.

"No," Pistachio said, and Herobrine turned to face him again. "you can't say that. She is alive, and it isn't over. It's never over, until the world really does die."

"There's nothing more we can do." Herobrine said, sighing, as he collapsed into one of the seats by his desk, dropping the arrows.

"There's always something you can do," Pistachio said hesitantly, "you know, there is a way to be certain whether Egnazol is alive."

Herobrine's eyes narrowed. "She would be in the Aether. All legends go there." he seemed to be considering this, so Pistachio seized his chance with a more daring idea.

"And, while you're there, you could see if it were possible to preserve a few of the night-creatures. A new world will come, I'm sure, but you can't replicate an entire culture." Pistachio said. Herobrine could always spawn fresh creepers, but they would be confused and remember nothing of this civilisation.

Herobrine looked at the creeper prince wryly, and Pistachio guessed he wasn't pleased at being talked to in this way by one of his servants. Then again, Egnazol had gotten way with it.

"What happened to it not being over 'till the end?" Herobrine said, a grin tugging at the edge of his mouth.

"If night-creatures live on, it won't be the end, of course." Pistachio said, nodding wisely.

Herobrine shook his head, his eyes begging to dim now. "Do you know what your problem is, prince?"

Pistachio frowned, confused.

"You always manage to make people smile."

* * *

Notch felt the code changing just as Jeb did. He sighed as he heard Jeb's chair swivel to face him.

"I told you you should have gotten rid of him." Jeb's voice said.

"Maybe."

"He's only going to cause trouble in the future. He's going to cause trouble now."

"Probably."

But the truth was, and even Jeb knew it, that Notch would never lay a hand on his brother's coding. He knew, and Herobrine knew, that they weren't really brothers, but for the short time when they had thought they were, before Herobrine had left the Aether, Notch had felt closer to no-one else.

And nothing would ever change that. Not even Herobrine himself.

"You're going to regret it. You always do."

Notch heard Jeb get up and leave the room, going to 'greet' Herobrine. Notch couldn't go down there himself. He couldn't look at his brother's face.

"I know," Notch told the empty room.

* * *

** Me: huff, wow, that was a marathon. Things are looking pretty dubious.**

**Jerry: WHAT NEXT?!**

**Me: Next I go find something to eat. (Also, avengers reference. spot it?)**

* * *

**Lunaris14: Another question for Herobrine: How does it feel to have all these people and some fang girls asking you questions and stuff? Also why were you flustered when Jeb and Dinnerbone asked ou those questions(No offense for being curious) ?**

**Herobrine: It's vaguely annoying at times, but you learn to ignore them. And I- I was not getting flustered! I was just annoyed by the accusations... which were completely unfounded... and uncalled for... **

**Lunaris14: And a question for Pistachio the creeper prince: How does it feel to be prince of the creepers?**

**Pistachio: It can be quite a responsibility at times, but I do my best. I get to meet lots of awesome people, like Egnazol!**

**Jeb: Herobrine don't deny that you have feelings for the girl. How can one person spend so much time with one girl? Notch thinks it's funny so does Dinnerbone. They're asking on what date are you planning to have the wedding on.**

**Herobrine: *blush* I- I- Be quiet, Jeb! It's not- I don't... pffft.**

**(Me: also, the funny thing is that I actually wrote a scene that I never used where Jeb and Dinnerbone pretty much said just that.)  
**


	16. Chapter 2: Notch's first creation

**Me: Sorrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy... next chapter will be quick. I promise.**

* * *

Chapter two

Notch's first creation

* * *

Herobrine was not particularly surprised, or pleased for that matter, to see Jeb waiting for him beside the portal when he arrived in the Aether. He'd hardly waited a moment after his conversation with the creeper prince before setting off down the corridor to his Aether portal. He'd almost wanted to take pistachio with him, as there was a chance the creepers would be coming to the Aether soon anyway and it would be valuable for him to know the place well, but Jeb had banned night-creatures from the Aether a long time ago by placing a program that killed them if they attempted to ascend to his creation.

Jeb himself didn't look pleased by Herobrine's arrival. "I'm supposed to greet you, but even hello is too good for you," the developer sniffed haughtily.

"It's a good thing I like my greetings cold, then," Herobrine said with a smirk, looking around the room. Where had the record rooms been again? He hadn't visited them for at least 500 years, and the rooms tended to move around…

"You seem to think that you can just come and go as you please," Jeb said, expression darkening even further, "But I think I'm correct in remembering that you're banned from the Aether."

Herobrine sighed angrily, thinking that he really didn't have the time or patience for this. "I'd like to see you try and stop me, Bergsten. I have things to do." he turned away from the developer to walk out one of the door that he thought _might_ lead to the records. Hopefully.

"Stop!" Jeb yelled, grabbing Herobrine's shoulder forcefully and snarling; "What the nether do you think you're doing? You can't just walk around here like you own the place! You almost destroyed the Aether, remember?"

"Well, I failed, didn't I?" Herobrine said, pushing Jeb away from him. "If I want to look in the record room, I damn well will, and don't bother fooling yourself that you can stop me."

Jeb's brow creased in confusion at Herobrine's words. "Why do you want to look at the records?"

"I want to see if someone is dead," Herobrine said shortly, "Though I have other things I want to do here, if it is possible to do so."

"You're using the records to finish some of your dirty work?" Jeb said with disgust, clearly thinking that Herobrine was checking to see if a person he wanted dead was gone.

Herobrine's jaw tightened with anger. "No, you imbecile," he ground out, "It's someone else who wants her dead, not me."

"Exactly who are you looking up?" Jeb said, looking even more confused.

"Egnazol."

Jeb stared at him for a moment, expression incredulous. "You are kidding, right?" he said slowly, tilting his head slightly in disbelief.

Herobrine rolled his eyes and snapped; "Do I look like I'm kidding? For goodness sake, can you just tell me where the record rooms are and leave me be?"

"Wait, wait, wait," Jeb said, shaking his head, "Why on earth are you checking if Egnazol is dead? What did you do to her?"

"I've already told you, it's not me who wants her dead," Herobrine said with forced patience, "She was captured by the… people… who wounded her before I brought her here. I'm not sure whether they've killed her yet or not."

"But that's absolutely horrible!" Jeb cried wringing his hands in distress, "how can you be so calm about this? I thought you-"

"Don't," Herobrine interrupted, knowing where this was going, "Don't say it."

"Why not? Don't you…?"

Herobrine glared at him. "Where are the record rooms?" was all he said.

Jeb stared at Herobrine for a moment, before letting out a loud breath and motioning for Herobrine to follow him, making his way to the fourth door leading out of the room. Herobrine reluctantly followed, wishing that the developer could just tell him where to go and leave him alone. As it was, jeb led Herobrine down several flights of stairs, glancing about warily as he did so. Clearly he didn't want to be seen helping the demon-man.

As Herobrine had suspected, the record rooms had moved since his last visit. They had also expanded, but that was to be expected as time passed. The records themselves were kept in books, though there was really no need for them to be recorded on paper; it was more for aesthetics than anything else. The bookshelves housing the records stretched high, almost touching the vaulting ceiling.

"Right," said Jeb, re-alerting his presence to Herobrine, "We'll need the life records, and failing that, the death records. I don't suppose you know when she was born?"

Herobrine shook his head with a small grimace. Egnazol had always been particularly secretive about her childhood, so she'd never once referred to her birthday or her age. "I think she's in her early twenties, though," he said hesitantly. Egnazol didn't look very old, but she was certainly no longer a child.

"It should be near here, then," Jeb said, walking around some shelves and plucking out a large volume with a pale cover. It had a number on it, and a few other identifying letters and symbols. The red-haired developer leafed through the pages lazily, only giving each page half a second's glance.

"Do we have to look through them manually?" Herobrine said with a sigh, pulling out the book that had sat next to Jeb's and opening it reluctantly. Of course, Herobrine knew perfectly well that the records where extensively protected from being accessed by others; that was why he'd had to come into the Aether to look at them rather than just accessing them remotely.

Jeb chuckled slightly, shrugging as he finished the book. "Nothing in there," he said as he replaced the book and picked up another.

Herobrine looked down at his book and began leafing through it just as quickly as Jeb had- but no scrap of information escaped him. All developers had the ability to process written information and lightning-fast speeds, because going through the records took way too long otherwise. There was no mention of Egnazol, but Herobrine took interest in a few names he recognized- probably people he'd killed, or something. Eagol, accused of leaking information; Herobrine had framed him, of course, because the man had tried to convert a monster-spawner into a grinder, an inexcusable offence to the demon-man. Alongside Eagol's name was a small, black X mark, signalling that the man in question was dead. Quite a lot of the people in this book were marked with this symbol; Minecraftia was a harsh place.

Herobrine, frustrated, put the book back on the shelf when he finished, before roughly tugging another one out. Why did there have to be so many names! A sickening feeling was settling in his chest- somewhere between dread and impatience. He desperately wanted to see that familiar set of letters that spelt Egnazol; he wanted check and see if her name, too, was marked by a small cross. He skimmed through the next book with feverish anticipation.

Jeb was slowly making his way down the books too, generally moving in the direction of the later ones. His face was pinched with concentration, and Herobrine took a moment to consider him as he read.

The two developers had never liked each other, right from the begging. Jeb was of the opinion that Herobrine shouldn't have been a developer at all, as he, unlike the other developers, had been created in Minecraftia by Notch. The red-haired developer's greatest fault was that he thought himself above Minecraftians, and Herobrine; they were creations, and he was a creator. This selfish streak had done nothing to win Herobrine's favour, and the two had soon become something close to arch-enemies. This was the fact that confused Herobrine now- he would have expected Jeb to annoy him and try to distract him from his job, at best (the worst being Jeb trying to kick him out of the Aether), not show him the way and help go through the records.

Thoughtfully, Herobrine finished his book and impatiently tried another one. This time, though he never realized its importance, he noticed a name, derrick, which didn't have a cross next to it. Herobrine moved on, before closing the book with a snap.

"Why are you helping me, Jeb?" he asked, violently shoving the book back in its place and grabbing another one.

Jeb watched the violence of his movements with amusement. "I just want you out of here as quickly as possible. If that means helping you, so be it," was the developer's answer, which seemed almost reasonable to Herobrine, before Jeb added; "Besides, it's a nice change to watch someone evil try to do something good."

Herobrine paused in his reading and glared at Jeb. He wanted to point out that rescuing a serial killer from a catastrophe she'd released on Minecraftia surely couldn't be a good thing, but that was clearly what Jeb wanted him to say, and he didn't want to give him the satisfaction.

"There is no such thing as evil," Herobrine said instead, repeating the words Egnazol had once spoken to him, before turning back to his book.

He could tell Jeb was confused by his statement, but the developer didn't say anything, and the pair lapsed back into silence as they read.

Herobrine had just began another book when Jeb gave a gasp of surprise- in the blink of an eye, Herobrine snatched the book from the developer's unsuspecting hands, staring at the page intently.

"Hey! I didn't even get a chance to see if-" Jeb's protests went ignored.

Herobrine stared down at the page, eyes staring at the curved lines that spelt out Egnazol. His eyes slowly slid across, irrational terror pooling in his stomach- until he saw that, in fact, there was no cross beside her name.

He had to look twice before he let himself believe it. She was alive.

"She's alive?" Jeb asked, peering at the book from over Herobrine's shoulder. "Oh, good. At least this wasn't a complete waste of time."

Herobrine wanted to punch Jeb, but refrained. Relief rushed through him, and he allowed himself simple curiosity and examined the brief notes after her name. It appeared that she did, in fact, have a last name; Diamondcraft. Diamondcraft was a rather common last name among crafters, which was slightly odd when pairing it with such an unusual person. The name seemed to come from her father, and Herobrine remembered the rumour that Egnazol had killed her father herself. Curiosity wrapped itself around him, and he touched the name of her father, triggering a corresponding book to light up further down the aisle. Jeb jumped over and took it down, opening it to a glowing page, where he frowned.

"Percival Diamondcraft is dead," He said, curiously "Why are you looking up her parents, anyway?"

"Checking if the rumours were true. Looks like they were." Herobrine told him, shrugging. He couldn't help but wonder now what could have happened for her to kill her own father. Herobrine knew better than anyone else just how hard it was to kill family.

Jeb looked at Herobrine sceptically, then frowned as Herobrine took the book with Egnazol's name in it and slipped it into a pocket in his cloak. "You better return that once you've gotten her back," he said with annoyance, and Herobrine was slightly surprised that he didn't bother trying to stop him.

"Now… I have once more thing to do before I leave," Herobrine said slowly. He had two, actually, but he was keeping pistachio's idea as a last resort.

Jeb frowned curiously, obviously wondering what else Herobrine thought he could get out of him. He didn't seem to realise that Herobrine was determined and it wasn't a question of_ what_ Jeb was prepared to give, but _when_.

"I need you to re-op me," Herobrine said abruptly, not wanting to beat around the bush.

"_What_?!" Jeb said furiously, "You have got to be kidding me! It's one thing to let you look at the records- It's another thing to let you have all your powers back! You where de-opped for a _reason_!"

Herobrine snarled impatiently at the angered developer, "I don't need them permanently- just so I can finish this."

But Jeb was fervently shaking his head. "No, no, no. You ask too much, Herobrine. I'm not going to give you your powers just so you can dramatically rescue your girlfriend."

"This isn't just about her, you moron! This is about the fate of Minecraftia!" Herobrine snapped back, very annoyed at having Egnazol described like that.

"Yeah right! You haven't even told us what the hell you're doing down there!" Jeb yelled "You say there's no such thing as evil, but everything you're done says otherwise. Why trust a man who would kill you?"

"Because he's probably got a reason for wanting you dead," Herobrine said, with forced calmness, deadly serious. "You want to know what I'm doing?"

"It would be nice to know."

"I'm stopping a race known as the Endermen from taking the entire world hostage and slowly eating every living being in existence."

Jeb stared at Herobrine for a moment, disbelieving. "Don't kid with me," he said contemptuously.

"I suppose Notch told you about the Possibility," Herobrine said, nodding when he saw Jeb's eyes light up with recognition.

"But that thing never worked… did it?" Jeb said slowly.

Herobrine sighed sadly. "We thought so, when we put it away- but we didn't realise that it's been creating other dimensions the whole time."

"Are you saying that there are thousands of dimensions created by this thing? This-"

"Were," Herobrine corrected, "There _were_ thousands of dimensions. But this one- they call it The End- found its way to each one and destroyed all life on them. And you know what happens to dimensions when there's no life in them."

"They shut down," Jeb said, eyes widening with revelation. "And you're saying that this End- These Endermen- want to destroy Minecraftia too?"

"Pretty much…" Herobrine said, nodding. He smirked slightly as the look of horror on Jeb's face. Even if the developer regarded Minecraftians below him, he still thought of them as people.

"but- but-" Jeb stuttered, then seemed to gather himself, and stared at Herobrine seriously. "What were you planning to do?" he said determinedly. Herobrine raised a brow at the developer's change in attitude.

"Well, once I had my access to the coding back, I was going to create another portal… with a few modifications." Herobrine said simply, not going into too much detail.

Jeb rolled his shoulders with a determination that Herobrine had rarely seen in the man before. "Right," Jeb said, "We need to get working."

* * *

"Argh!" Jeb said, his face in his hands. "This is so frustrating!"

Herobrine sniffed, leaning back on his seat. "You know this would be a lot easier if you let me help." Jeb had adamantly refused to op Herobrine, even now he knew what was at stake.

"Don't flatter yourself. It would be more help if I could call Jahkob into this," Jeb snapped, glaring at the screen of coding in front of him.

"Jahkob is probably too busy making blanket forts under his desk," Herobrine said with amusement, "And besides, it was you who decided not to tell any of the other developers about this."

Jeb's only response was a grunt and Herobrine counted this as a small victory. They were currently in Jeb's private office, working on programming a portal as per Herobrine's specifications. Jeb's office was clean and orderly, with several pot plants taking space on the shelves adding to the general theme of green. On a peg by the door hung a green and gold cloak, very similar to Herobrine's black and green one. All developers had a cloak, though they wore them in varying amounts, made in colours that represented their job or personality. Herobrine used his alot, because otherwise he looked like an average Minecraftian (except for his eyes, of course.)

After a while, Herobrine began to become impatient. Just because Egnazol wasn't dead currently didn't mean she wasn't in danger of dying. A trickle of dread returned to him and he slipped the life record back out of his pocket, opening it to the page and letting out a breath of relief to see that Egnazol was still living.

Jeb, not looking up from the coding he was editing, smirked as though he knew exactly what Herobrine was doing. "You know Hero, I'm not sure why you're so worried about her dying. She's a legend; that means that you could pull her into the Aether once she's dead. Plus, she'd be immortal."

Herobrine pocketed the book and glared at the back of Jeb's head. "I don't think Egnazol would appreciate being confined to the Aether- way to peaceful and easy for her. And I don't think she wants to be immortal either."

"Why not?"

"Egnazol…" Herobrine hesitated, "She's not exactly the most stable of people. Immortality would not suit her ways."

"Are you saying that she wants to die?" Jeb said, finally turning away from his monitor to look at Herobrine curiously.

"I didn't say that," Herobrine said, frowning, "But…" He remembered all the times he'd seen through the cracks in Egnazol- the sheer exhaustion, as though after all she'd been through it was all she could do not to give up. He noticed that Jeb was looking at him worriedly, and snapped; "Aren't you supposed to be programming?"

Jeb looked mildly offended, but shrugged. "I can't do it. It's too radical- It's like nothing I've programmed before."

"Well wasn't this a big waste of time," Herobrine snarled, fed up. He hated just waiting and relying on someone else to do things, and this was why. Jeb was so stupid!

"There's a last option, though," Jeb said reluctantly, "I really didn't want to do this, but I can't see any other way."

"What?"

"Notch."

Herobrine grinned at Jeb, realising that finally the developer was going to allow him to speak with his 'brother'. Jeb's expression darkened at the grin.

"One condition, though," Jeb added slowly, "You have to apologise to him."

"Yeah right," Herobrine spat "It's not me who needs to do the apologising."

"That's not true! You tried to kill him and destroy the Aether, just because of a test in the nether!" Jeb said righteously.

"And that totally compares to him lying about being my brother! About my entire life! There is no way _I_ am going to apologise to _him_," Herobrine snarled.

"That's not-"

There was a ping, and the pair's glares were redirected to the screen of coding. At the bottom was a new line of text.

_Notch Stop arguing, both of you. Herobrine can see me if he wants to._

Jeb and Herobrine stared at the screen for a moment, and then looked at each other with matching grimaces. Had Notch been listening the entire time?

"Fine," Jeb snapped, standing up and grabbing his cloak of its hook.

Herobrine smirked at this, always happy to see Jeb proven wrong. He got of his chair and followed the angry whirl of gold-and-green cloaked developer down the hallway. They reached an elevator and Jeb sequentially pressed some buttons that brought them up the final few floors to the top of Mojang tower. Before they stepped out of the lift, Jeb grabbed Herobrine's arm.

"Notch might be letting you come up here, but keep in mind that if you hurt him in any way, you will regret it." Jeb hissed to him, grip tight enough to hurt.

Herobrine sneered, "And what could you do to make me regret it?"

Jeb seemed to hesitate, grip loosening so that Herobrine could snatch his arm back. "I… will tell Notch that you've fallen in love with Egnazol."

Herobrine looked at Jeb disbelievingly, "But I haven't."

"Notch doesn't know that, though, does him?" Jeb said with a smile, and began walking down the corridor.

Herobrine followed, frowning with disgust. Jeb could be such a gossip-girl sometimes. The worst that would happen if Jeb delivered his threat was that Notch would tease him endlessly for it – certainly not the most terrible thing in the world to happen.

They opened the double doors that led to Notch's office and stepped inside.

Notch sat at his desk, chair turned to face the pair. He hadn't changed since Herobrine had last seen him- just as sturdy, with the same dark beard, the same dark coat and even the same black fedora. His gold and black cloak hung beside the door, for the most part unused.

"Jeb," Notch greeted, "Herobrine."

Herobrine's eyes narrowed at the creator of Minecraftia, not saying anything. He was struck once again by the circumstances of their last meeting, where Notch had admitted that he'd been lying to Herobrine the whole time- and he felt his fist curl tightly with anger at the memory.

"We… need your help," Jeb said, glancing warningly at Herobrine.

Notch nodded, bringing up the lines of coding that Jeb had been working on moment earlier. "Yes, I saw you working. I can't understand what you're trying to achieve, though- The programming is out of context without an explanation."

Jeb explained the plan quickly, and Herobrine felt satisfaction as Notch's eyes widened when he heard about the possibility and the End. Of course, Herobrine had been just as unsuspecting about the possibility as Notch had been before all this, but it was nice to see the creator realise his ignorance in something for once.

"Y-yes," Notch said, raising a hand to rub at his temple as though he had a headache, "I can sense it now. The files were hidden within the possibility- I never thought to look inside it again."

Herobrine grunted, not particularly pleased by this. He wished that he could look through the coding himself and find the files for the end, but he was still blocked from it. Silently, he cursed Jeb and his thick-headedness.

"But it doesn't explain why you were trying to alter a portal- would it not be much simpler to delete the realm?" Notch asked, his eyes narrowing.

Herobrine grimaced, wondering if there was any other way to explain his want to keep the dimension open without mentioning Egnazol. "You would be destroying a whole culture… a whole species! We don't know their potential yet," he said half-heartedly. He ignored Jeb's raised eyebrows.

"There's more to it than that, br- Herobrine," Notch said. Herobrine was torn between relief that Notch had thought not to insult him by calling him his brother, and annoyance that he almost had.

Shrugging his shoulders uncomfortably, he snapped; "Fine. There is also a Minecraftian stuck in there."

Notch's brow furrowed with confusion. "A Minecraftian? What is a Minecraftian doing in there? And why do you care?"

Herobrine was steadily becoming more and more uncomfortable with this conversation. "She got thrown in there after they used her to finish the portal. Probably to entertain their master until they can get more food."

"That doesn't answer my last question," Notch said blandly.

"It's because he's-" Jeb tried to say, but Herobrine violently slapped a hand over his mouth.

"I am not," he snarled at the silenced developer.

Notch looked taken aback by this exchange. "Well, clearly you don't want this Minecraftian dead, which is unusual enough. It doesn't matter why," he said slowly, though his eyes betrayed his curiosity.

Herobrine rolled his eyes. "Good. But whatever he tells you is a lie," he added, pointing at Jeb before releasing him again.

Jeb looked very annoyed by Herobrine's actions, but wiped his mouth and remained silent. Clearly he had decided that trying to gossip in front of Herobrine wasn't worth it.

"Now," Notch said, his voice taking on a business-like tone, "What's this fuss about water?"

* * *

Notch was a developer and the most talented programmer ever to live- but even he got hungry. Since he was so busy working, he'd actually ordered Jeb to go fetch him some food- Jeb had not appreciated being sent off like some kind of serving boy, but he'd allowed it this once. Besides, he was getting hungry too.

Now it was just Notch and Herobrine in the office. Herobrine made no attempt to make conversation with his former brother- why should he, after all? But Notch was having none of that. This was the reason he'd sent Jeb away in the first place.

"Herobrine," Notch said, turning towards the white-eyed man.

"Hm?" Herobrine grunted, trying to ignore him.

"I want to apologise," Notch said after a moment.

This got Herobrine's attention. He looked at Notch, eyes narrowed in suspicion. "_What_?"

"I want to apologise," Notch repeated, "for everything I've done."

Herobrine's mouth twisted into a scowl, but he didn't say anything.

Notch tapped his foot impatiently. He wanted Herobrine to understand. "I really am. I shouldn't have lied to you-"

"If you shouldn't have, why did you?" Herobrine snapped.

"I wanted to give you a reason-"

"Don't pretend you did it for me-"

"Of course I did it for you-"

"Don't lie to me-"

"I was lonely. That's why I lied."

Herobrine sighed and put his face in his hands. Notch continued. "I didn't have a brother back home, Herobrine. I developed this world alone, with no-one to help me. No-one who understood what I was doing inside my computers. When I finally created you, I made you the brother I never had."

"You still didn't have to lie. Brother's don't have to be related to each other- it's a pact of trust," Herobrine said, eyes bright with anger.

"I know that now, but back then I would give anything to have a brother. I thought lying was the only method to get one."

Herobrine was silent.

"You have to understand, Herobrine. I really am sorry. I wanted to tell you so many times, but the lies just grew and grew- and I was afraid…" Notch said with a sigh.

"You were afraid that if you told me, I would reject you," Herobrine finished for him.

They sat together in silence for a moment, mulling over their thoughts. Notch wished Herobrine would say something, but all he did was sit there emotionlessly. Notch was tempted to speak up again- perhaps he could ask about that strange Minecraftian Herobrine seemed to care about. Then he wondered if perhaps Herobrine cared more about this person that he did Notch. Had he perhaps found a new brother? Just as he was beginning to panic, Herobrine let out a long sigh.

"I accept," he said.

"What?" Notch asked, confused for a moment.

"I accept your apology," Herobrine snapped, "Don't make me say it again."

Notch stared at Herobrine in disbelief. He hadn't let himself hope that Herobrine would actually accept his apology. He'd just wanted to tell Herobrine his reasons so he wouldn't think quite so badly of him.

"I understand why you lied," Herobrine continued, "Though I despise that you did. And I suppose I'm sorry we didn't talk about this earlier."

Notch was at a loss of what to say. Part of him wanted to jump on Herobrine and hug him, but that probably wasn't the most intelligent course of action. Eventually he gulped and said; "Thank you, brother."

Herobrine frowned and waved a hand, and Notch realised he'd called Herobrine bother. Oops.

"No. I've accepted your apology and apologised myself, but that doesn't mean we're brothers again."

Notch nodded quickly.

"Look," Herobrine said in a much gentler tone, and Notch was reminded of days when Herobrine had always spoken to him like this. "I've forgiven you- I'll come back and talk to you, and you're welcome to visit me. But we just can't be brothers anymore. We can't go back to the way things were."

"I understand. Thank you, Herobrine." Notch said solemnly. He was relieved that at last he and Herobrine had reached an understanding- but at the same time he mourned that he had lost his brother, and it was entirely his own fault.

At that moment, Jeb burst through the door, precariously balancing several boxes of pizza in his arms. "They were making pizza, so I got extra!" Jeb said gleefully, "I hope you like meatlovers!"

* * *

**Oh I love you Jeb. I really do. I have no idea how I would have ended this chapter without you. I'm not sure if Jeb actually likes pizza at all, but he'd be mad not to.**

**Also, I'm SO, SO sorry I haven't updated in ages. I blame it on a combination of re-writing a bunch of the first chapters, starting up 'An Idiot's Guide to Saving the World', and my own laziness. Well, at least I've written out the plot for the rest of the story, so that should be done fairly quickly. I hope. The next chapter's been written for ages, at least.**

**Now, all of you readers. YES YOU. I can see you reading this on my traffic stats, so don't hide. I have a job for all of you. Actually a question; How do you guys feel about the, ahem, romance in this story? Originally there wasn't going to be any and I only hinted at it because it was funny, but it's kind of tempting. What do you guys think? Of course, I'm talking about pairing Egnazol with Herobrine. **

**So that's your job. Tell me your opinions in a review (which you should do anyway because reviews fuel me). Because seriously I can't decide. And until I decide, I can't write much more.**

**THE THREAT. THERE. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.**


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